[FPSPACE] Ares 5 or Direct?

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: E.P. Grondine [mailto:epgrondine at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 9:38 PM
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: [FPSPACE] Ares 5 or Direct?

[snip]

> Now those who are most intensely focused on manned Mars
> flight uniformly think that Zubrin's Mars Direct archi-
> tecture is the best way of doing manned Mars exploration.
> They favor a super heavy like the Ares 5, and ATK is 
> trying its damnedest to burrow in Ares 5 as well. 
>
> I myself think that Zubrin's Mars Direct architecture will
> not work, due to the mass requirements, among other things.
> Instead I think something like Dr. Aldrin's cyclers will
> have to be developed and funded internationally if manned
> Mars exploration is ever to be done.  The Direct shuttle
> derived launch vehicle could be used for the construction
> of such a cycler as well.
>
> My bottom line thinking right now is that Direct is faster,
> better, cheaper, and that the EELVs and Falcon 9 will be
> used for manned launch.

 According to Greek poet Homer Ares was a great Olympian god
 of war, whose divine attendants were his sons Phobos (Fear)
 and Deimos (Terror).

 Were Mars nuts realistic they would accept the fact that half
 a century could pass between manned exploration of the two
 moonlets and manned exploration of Mars itself.

 Hopefully future such exploration will be driven by engin-
 eering considerations rather than PR, especially if China
 is to take a leading part. 

 Therefore, the yardstick by which to judge rocketry of interest
 at present is not its capacity to land a posse of yankees on
 Mars and bring them safely back to a New York ticker parade,
 but its capacity to build Chinatowns on Phobos and Deimos.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark