Posted by Johnboy at pub-216-205-224-10.foxinc.com on January 23, 2004 at 14:12:37:
In Reply to: Cheapest way to put a man om Mars poll posted by AshFan on January 23, 2004 at 13:31:45:
In deep space you don't have to worry about liftoff. Ion drive, in which ions of gas are accelerated and pushed out the rocket, provides a low thrust - but it's alwys on.
Then the problem becomes, getting off earth. So you need a cheap rocket for that first push (or a space elevator, I can dream). Single stage to orbit in small payloads would probably be the ticket. Which is why I'm annoyed that NASA didn't pursue the Delta Clipper program, which could have used off the shelf items for a reusable rocket. Pete Conrad ran the test flights for the Delta Clipper off a Mac - which incidentally had more computing power than Mission Control during the Apollo missions.
The question really is, how do you get off Earth cheaply.
Johh