This rocks...................When as a child I thought of travel to Mars, it was with the limited technology of the day. Disposable boosters and chemical rockets. When mankind finally does step foot on Mars you can bet on two things. One, it'll be an American who does it, and two, it'll probably be from a vehicle powered and driven by something like this.
Electrical power sources for the VASIMR engine could include such things as a nuclear power system or solar panels. For long-range flights, Chang-Diaz said, the best option is nuclear power. "Nuclear power is definitely a must if we're going to go to Mars," he said. This means that VASIMR could be integrated with NASA's recently announced Project Prometheus proposal to develop nuclear power generators for spaceflight.
We probably won't have to wonder what it was like in Spain in 1492 in just another decade or so. The possiblities are vast, the risks aren't bad, but the payoffs..........Mankind will finally be able to leave the cradle, to take the first tenative steps into another age. I may never leave this world, but my children may very well get the chance to explore options that would stagger the mind.
Although VASIMR is still years away from being used in space, Chang-Diaz said that it has already shown great promise during tests on Earth. So, it is entirely possible that the engine that will carry the first person to Mars is already running in a laboratory on Earth.
Not such a long wait, we've broken so may barriers as a species that a decade or two is a mere blush of a moment. We will have the solar system, it's our birthright as humans. As for the rest of the galaxy, well, we have designs on that too......
Posted by Mark Edwards at August 05, 2003 01:11 PM | TrackBackVASIMR engines are great, but with the wacko environmentalist left; I can guarantee one will never fly from the US mainland. You thought the protests were big over Cassini? Try launching a couple hundred pounds of plutonium from KSC.
Now on the other hand, if we wanted to partner with another country with a space infrastructure already deployed; that's an entirely different matter. :-)
Posted by: Brian on August 5, 2003 02:29 PMPublic opinion may be too great for even the wacko's to seriously oppose. The fire this could light under the imagination, once the ships are built, the missions set, crews selected. I remember the moon race, the grumbles of those who said we shouldn't go were brushed aside as so many cranks. And that was just the moon, but another planet? Like the difference between Alan Shepard's first flight and the one by Glenn. Alan was first in space for America, but Glen's orbital flight is the one that people remember now.
Mars may be such a catalytical moment, a break from what was. A few enviromental wackjobs can't be allowed to stand in the path of billions of people moving ahead.
They'll be safeguards, and accidents, but like the shuttle, you learn and move on. No accident could be terrible enough to give up on the first real chance to realize the future. It's never stopped mankind before, and it won't this time either.
Posted by: puggs on August 5, 2003 02:53 PM