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Buzz Aldrin's Roadmap to Mars
FleaPlus writes "Former astronaut (and MIT astronautics grad) Buzz Aldrin has an article in last months Popular Mechanics in which he describes a plan for manned Mars missions. Aldrin's plan proposes using a Cycler spacecraft permanently orbiting between Earth and Mars. This would have a shielded habitat and rotation-induced gravity, and would take just 5 months to reach Mars. Smaller vehicles would take astronauts to and from the Cycler. Aldrin claims the plan is less costly and more sustainable than NASA's current plans."
Buzz's plan may be cheaper than the NASA's current plan, but pass on his plan to NASA and the space industry and they'll inflate the price tag like he cannot believe.
Still, the Congress might buy it.
(sorry for a troll...)
Not only is he an MIT grad with a doctorate, he's got a moon crater named after him, and he has flown into space with Homer Simpson. With credentials like that I don't know how anyone could doubt his wisdom.
Is fucking better than you.
This is true.
Has this guy lived or what?
i hereby nominate myself to help test this facility when it is done being constructed and time how long it takes to go to mars using this plan
if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
...te?
Before this feature, articles like this would simply never appear on the main page unless users configured their homepage to include all articles from the section (in this case "Science"). Now, these non-front-page articles get a small footprint at least.
I dug around a little and found the following abstract detailing an older version of Buzz Aldrin's work. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a free link to the actual paper...
Evolutionary space transportation plan for Mars cycling concepts
Aldrin, Buzz; Byrnes, Dennis; Jones, Ron; Davis, Hubert
AIAA Space 2001 Conference and Exposition
A promising new human Mars exploration approach based on the use of an Earth-Mars Cycling Interplanetary Transportation System is described. In this approach, a cycling vehicle acts as a permanently emplaced transportation element that continuously cycles between the Earth and Mars using gravity assist with minimal course adjustment on each cycle eliminating the need to repeat the large and expensive injection propellant requirement of traditionally conceived Mars vehicles and missions. With the implementation of a two Cycler system, one Cycler would always be going to Mars while the other is returning to Earth. When in the vicinity of the Earth or Mars, the Cyclers release or are intercepted by smaller aerobraking "taxis" that ferry people and supplies to and from the surface. Alternatively, in the Semi-Cycler Concept, the Cycler vehicles themselves would use aerobraking and gravity assist to orbit about the Earth or Mars for a period before returning. In this way, unmanned cargo flights to Mars could use the minimum energy, long trip time trajectories while crewed flights could use the shorter flight time, longer stay time options. Both concepts are addressed in the paper, and the results of preliminary flight mechanics analyses are presented. In addition, a transportation plan is presented based upon a logical extension of existing space assets augmented by new vehicles providing a reusable transportation capability.
Once an astronaut, always an astronaut.
.... when do we get to blow zombies' heads off from Hell?
Soon, rite?
>:D
Seems like this guy came out up with his plans only after NASA released theirs. Story of his life, always second.
"I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google"
... he has already been on the moon (or in that studio for that matter) in 1960. I knew it. They just wanted to trick the commies into that "race to the moon" and at a point where the Russians are so close to really be first, they publish those recordings. What a cover up!
Without the ISS there would be no space tourism. You need to have a destination to sell before you get customers. A flight to Mars could be done with something like an extended apollo program, with similar non-reusable hardware, but you can't make money off that.
If money is not being made the US taxpayers will have to pay for the whole thing and I really can't see that happening in this day and age.
But wealthy people would pay for a cruise on the continous shuttle system Buzz is proposing. I think it is the right way to go.
And good on him for punching Bart Sibrel
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Damn was that game ever hard. The intelligence agencies were bloody useless, as well... I once played a two-player game against myself, running both sides with equal incompetence, and the KGB were assuring me that the Americans were about to orbit a minishuttle - I'd barely even got Gemini spaceworthy :)
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
It only works if we find water on the moon and water on mars. Doesn't that mean this plan is science fiction? Or should billions be invested on a maybe?
that I always wanted to do:
:)
Fly into space.
Walk on the Moon.
Punch Bart Sibrel in the face.
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This is a dangerous time for NASA. People are getting older there (as if they weren't before) But is the US education system producing enough people to fill the void and meet tomorrow's challenges? Will we make it to mars in less than 18 yrs as many are predicting or will the red planet be claimed by a rising red star?
Demented But Determined.
Yes, they used to say stuff like "17 more" under the section. And then a few weeks ago, it got stuck and Games was on "17 more" for two weeks. Last week they fix it, and now this. It's an interesting change, at least. Under the old way, I would never have seen this article because I wouldn't have bothered to click on the "Science" topic. Mostly because "Science" wasn't in my "Sections" list on the left side of the page.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
There seem to be a lot of 'extra' expenses that his plan depends upon.... like a permanent base on the moon, a permanent fuel depot and manufacturing plant on Mars (already in place) not to mention that he calls for two Cycler type ships not one... plus the multiple CEVs to actually realize the goal of sustainability. There's more but I'll let you read it yourself.
It's a nice plan but do I see a plan that's cheaper? Hell no, If the goal is to GET to Mars.
If the goal is to create an interplanetary transit system then sure, this is definitely the way to go.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I've always loved Buzz, he actually wrote about this stuff in his Sci-Fi book Encounter With Tiber. In it he also wrote about the "Big Can" method of building the space station, ie. build the Space Station out of the spent fuel tanks. I think he also had space stations at Lagrange points.
Especially ruffled ones!
"Former astronaut (and MIT astronautics grad)"
He's been to the fucking moon!, the second one to set foot on it! Who cares what school he's gone to? I mean, just as a ballpark estimate, I'd say 2-3 orders of magnitude more people have graduated MIT with said degree than ever walked on the moon. What is the submitter, an MIT alumn?
I would avoid talking about footprints, especially "small" ones, around Buzz Aldrin if I were you...
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
.. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
I saw this referred to in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (no images). There's also a section that lists the "leading" proposed manned Mars missions.
The CRIST Sol orbiters, or Cargo and Resources In-System Transports were huge ships shaped like a hollow potato and designed to be able to move huge amounts of material between Earth and Mars with low cost and, theoretically, low maintenance. The system was simple. The CRIST was put into orbit around SOL on the plane of the ecliptic. Built with a powerful solar sail, the CRIST could change its orbit easily to pass by the Earth or Mars. On a flyby, materials could be loaded or offloaded...
The design of the CRIST was innovative and useful, but it was not low-maintenance... Each time that a CRIST broke down, the result was famine on Mars... ...the coming of a Martian conflict was inevitable.
(Ironically, the Pfhor invasion pre-empted that massacre with another.)
He also has a little-known career in boxing. Truly an American icon.
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