Better for an idea to fail out of the starting gate, then to recklessly go out on a wing and a prayer and result in a horrible disaster.What would be the estimated travel time to Mars using existing technology?(Boeing, Lockheed, or even SpaceX)
Wondering if NASA wants to kill this project? SpaceX seems to want to be a long term NASA contributor for their projects. Elon Musk even stated so in a after splashdown interview. Is SpaceX attempting to help kill this project as a political way of aligning itself with future NASA missions?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578328631778830030.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#if this is true this project is already dead
The important thing is this $100 million in start up capital, and they only have to spend a maximum of $100 million over the next 3 to 4 years to be credible to launch towards Mars in 5 years with the full $500 million to $1 Billion.
Seems NASA Watch is saying Andy Pasztor is up to his usual tricks.
Quote from: Afrocle on 02/27/2013 03:24 amThe important thing is this $100 million in start up capital, and they only have to spend a maximum of $100 million over the next 3 to 4 years to be credible to launch towards Mars in 5 years with the full $500 million to $1 Billion.I admire the enthusiasm, but really... they only have to spend a maximum of ... that much? Holy crud. $0.5-1.0B--even assuming those numbers are close to reality, that's... 1/6-1/3 of the annual world-wide commercial launch market. That's in the range of what SpaceX has spent to date. We're talking serious money, effort and risk, with no clear return; only is not a word I would use.
I think that you understand my main point which is that if Tito really spends $100 million of his own money, then that $100 million gives this human Mars flyby the credibility that it needs in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. He does not need to show the last bit of money until 2017 and 2018.
The $500 Million to $1 Billion is what Kistler spent in under 5 years on a rocket that went nowhere, so there are plenty of investors in the Arab world, Taiwan, Singapore, Africa, Latin America, etc. who could find this risk capital.
We are not talking serious money here when you put it into the perspective of an 80 year old man (or close to that) and the first trip, in over a billion years of the history of life on this Earth, of humans to Mars.
What else should Tito and other investors spend this money on? A football stadium?
Quote from: Afrocle on 02/27/2013 04:47 amWhat else should Tito and other investors spend this money on? A football stadium?Yes. A football stadium has potential to generate profit.An investor by definition wouldn't give a dime for sending two people on a long uncomfortable trip.
- former NASA astronaut Dr Jonathan Clark.
Sport, and the English Premiership makes NFL seem like Walmart, is mega money.