/sci/ - Science & Math

Blogpost but let me explain.

In 1990, Mars Direct was made as a way to make Mars achievable. Before then, Mars missions used massive vehicles with nuclear engines and requiring dozens of launches to complete. Naturally, this would’ve never happened.

This came to head in 1990 when NASA published a 90 day report on the future of human spaceflight. It stated that setting up a manned base on the Moon and Mars would require $450 billion. This was shot down in Congress ASAP.

Enter Robert Zubrin. An engineer at Martin Marietta, he and a small team built the most bare-bones Mars plan possible: Mars Direct.

Mars Direct is entirely conservative. Zubrin liked Nuclear Thermal, but he knew it wasn’t flying and would take years to develop. He also knew that dozens of launches of a Saturn V sized vehicle were unsustainable. Zubrin didn’t want Apollo 2, he wanted the start of colonization.

Mars Direct was a huge hit at NASA, who used it as the basis for their planned Mars missions, called the Design Reference Missions. It’s been 30 years, and goddamn, NASA has dropped the ball. Over time, NASA added more complexity to Mars Direct, until it became the monstrosity it is today.

NASA’s current Mars plan requires dozens of launches of SLS, expendable Nuclear stages, and is entirely focused on flags and footprints - not colonization.

It’s funny how NASA embraced Mars Direct but deformed it into the mess it is today. I am disgusted NASA actually wants to build some fuckhuge nuclear vehicle we all know is too expensive to ever fly.