Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
I hadn't realized just to get to the moon they need around 10 fuelling flights, either to the ship or a fuelling depot that doesn't exist yet. Meanwhile, Musk is saying one of these things, that has yet to achieve a full orbit in low earth atmosphere, will be on it's way to Mars next year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2g88y52y8o
Even more likely is 2041. Any manned Mars mission not containing human waste is going to require a lot of fuel to get the launch vehicle off of Mars. The moon has 16% Earth gravity, Mars has 38%. This isn't trivial to overcome. This is a lot of fuel. Any talk of getting to Mars with humans this decade or next is about as real as your car driving across the country without human input, coming in 2017. But it's got him a lot of government money! |
It’s easier to get to mars if you don’t plan on coming back.