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NASA's Space Launch System: Rocketing Towards Cancellation?
The National Space Society recently held a conference in Los Angeles, and SLS was apparently a hot topic at the gathering. Over the course of four days of mingling with space industry muckety-mucks, Politico Space reports it heard multiple rumblings that bode ill for the Space Launch System money-pot.
For one thing, SLS has been marketed as key to NASA's efforts to eventually put astronauts on Mars. But as Politico reports, attendees at the conference expressed doubts as to "the wisdom or efficacy of a crewed mission to Mars in the next decade." California Republican and House space subcommittee member Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, for one, criticized the technology as too immature to support a manned Mars mission, saying "I think all this talk about going to Mars has been premature," and warning that NASA won't actually be ready to conduct a manned Mars mission before "20 years from now, maybe more."
[Chris] Hadfield, who's now retired, shares his expertise about rockets, spaceships, spacewalking, and Mars exploration in a new web course on the online platform MasterClass. To follow up on those lessons, we asked Hadfield what he thinks about the future rocket ships of three major players in the new space race: NASA's Space Launch System, SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket, and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.
[...] "Personally, I don't think any of those three rockets is taking people to Mars," Hadfield told Business Insider. " I don't think those are a practical way to send people to Mars because they're dangerous and it takes too long."
Response to Hadfield's remarks: SpaceX BFR can be used for massive space development, orbital, lunar and Mars colonization
Former astronaut criticizes lunar gateway plans
A former NASA astronaut used an appearance at a National Space Council meeting June 18 to argue that a key element of NASA's plans to return humans to the moon should be reconsidered.
Appearing on a panel during the meeting at the White House, Terry Virts said that the proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a human-tended facility in orbit around the moon, wasn't an effective next step in human spaceflight beyond Earth orbit after the International Space Station.
"It essentially calls for building another orbital space station, a skill my colleagues and I have already demonstrated on the ISS," he said. "Gateway will only slow us down, taking time and precious dollars away from the goal of returning to the lunar surface and eventually flying to Mars."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 21 2018, @09:19PM
Reusable BFRs can get a lot of massive payloads to the surface of Mars (the low-Earth orbit fuel tankers can be reused quickly, but other vehicles will be destined to sit around on Mars initially, at maybe $400-500 million a pop). Compare to the costs associated with SLS. Supplies and hopefully robots capable of assembling structures can be sent in advance.
There are plenty of convincing ways that radiation could be kept to a minimum in the living space. One design is Mars Ice Dome [nasa.gov]. A large amount of ISS-tier food can be sent with BFR, and they could set up a greenhouse for some diet supplementation. Ice water can be obtained on Mars, with more ease depending on the landing site.
Comfort could end up better than the ISS since astronauts would not be in a microgravity environment.
The feasibility of a colony depends on funding. Since SpaceX/Musk is highly unlikely to pay for a full-fledged colonization effort, we can dismiss it for now. However, getting 5-10 astronauts in living quarters on Mars is definitely achievable.
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