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where are you getting your numbers from. I am not an accountant for NASA but they sound extremely low!
by joering2 15y ago
where are you getting your numbers from. I am not an accountant for NASA but they sound extremely low!
- rdl 15y agoZubrin, Mars Direct. He estimated $10-15b to do it, and if you were SpaceX, you could probably do it for less. The key to making Mars cheap is to do multiple launches -- first launch is a fuel production facility (automated) which uses Mars resources to make fuel and oxygen, then housing, then a return vehicle. Launch the crew once everything is set up, in a vehicle which can't return on its own -- they use the stuff already on Mars to live and return. I mostly just made up the moon number, based on it being a whole lot easier than Mars. I think you could probably do a recreation of Apollo pretty cheaply (a quick flight to the moon, simple landing, etc.). Certainly a trip to the moon without landing wouldn't be THAT hard once you had a rocket able to escape from earth gravity (maybe 2x as hard as launching to GEO?). You could maybe do it with a Falcon 9 in a single launch, so that's about $2b. It's less fun if you don't land, though.
- edge17 15y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#Program_costs_and_cancellation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#Program_costs_an... pretty cheap when you put it next to a bank bailout
- CWuestefeld 15y agoSee the later part of this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/bill_stone_explores_the_earth_and_space.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/bill_stone_explores_the_ear... Another inspiring TED talk.