The "we haven't done it before, so it can't be done" attitude will get us nowhere.
I don't think i have that attitude, I'd like to so see much more focus on the actual difficult parts and will need to get done. Handwaving will get nobody nowhere, unless you are hitchhiking maybe
Quote from: savuporo on 10/15/2016 08:04 pmI don't think i have that attitude, I'd like to so see much more focus on the actual difficult parts and will need to get done. Handwaving will get nobody nowhere, unless you are hitchhiking maybeAre you assuming the SpaceX development engineers just handwave those away and are not actually designing hardware to do these tasks?
Quote from: guckyfan on 10/15/2016 08:45 pmQuote from: savuporo on 10/15/2016 08:04 pmI don't think i have that attitude, I'd like to so see much more focus on the actual difficult parts and will need to get done. Handwaving will get nobody nowhere, unless you are hitchhiking maybeAre you assuming the SpaceX development engineers just handwave those away and are not actually designing hardware to do these tasks?I'm assuming SpaceX is currently and for foreseeable future very focused on building rockets and delivering on their contractual commitments. And this thread was about Zubrin's talk about his revised crewed Mars mission ideas
Quote from: savuporo on 10/15/2016 08:51 pmQuote from: guckyfan on 10/15/2016 08:45 pmQuote from: savuporo on 10/15/2016 08:04 pmI don't think i have that attitude, I'd like to so see much more focus on the actual difficult parts and will need to get done. Handwaving will get nobody nowhere, unless you are hitchhiking maybeAre you assuming the SpaceX development engineers just handwave those away and are not actually designing hardware to do these tasks?I'm assuming SpaceX is currently and for foreseeable future very focused on building rockets and delivering on their contractual commitments. And this thread was about Zubrin's talk about his revised crewed Mars mission ideasAll 5000+ of them?
SpaceX doesn't have 5000+ engineers. Why is this in a Zubrin / Mars society thread ?
The list of handwaved concerns remain largely the same as always- Mars ascent propulsion and return propulsion don't exist- required pinpoint landing doesn't exist - robust life support systems required doesn't exist- ISRU technologies required don't exist
- radiation gets ignored - low gravity effects during transition are ignored
- power source on mars is a Russian Topaz reactor ? Can you order these on Amazon ?
- the launch windows to develop iterations of these things are infrequent
The list of handwaved concerns remain largely the same as always- Mars ascent propulsion and return propulsion don't exist
- required pinpoint landing doesn't exist
- robust life support systems required doesn't exist
- ISRU technologies required don't exist
- radiation gets ignored
- low gravity effects during transition are ignored
- the launch windows to develop iterations of these things are infrequent- .. and many more, once you start looking at actual details
This is just engineering, not a huge deal.
We have supersonic retropropulsion and pinpoint landing demonstrated on Earth. That's new, and significant.
Supersonic retropropulsion on Falcon 9 was tested in "Mars-relevant" conditions, so that's higher than TRL 1 or 2.
Or do you think it only counts if there is a subscale test on Mars? Red Dragon is supposed to launch in a few years and demonstrate that.