Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-thermal propulsion

Re:Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-the... by politician on Thursday February 17, 2022 @11:00AM (#30374498)

The ISRU profiles of both bodies are significantly different and Mars has much higher gravity.

The Moon is, first and foremost, a weapons platform, and any every competent military sees it as such. There will never be a functioning colony on the Moon until the Earth is unified under a single government.

Mars is far enough away that colonization is possible, and the technology needs are so dramatic that we’ll have to develop a comprehensive deployment plan to bootstrap self-sufficiency from the start. Despite 150 years of industrialization on Earth, we still lack an experimentally tested plan to reboot.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-the... by jmyeet on Thursday February 17, 2022 @11:46AM (#30375214)

> The Moon is, first and foremost, a weapons platform

This just isn't true. To quote Isaac Arthur, "there is no such thing as an unarmed spaceship". Kinetic energy is all the weapon you need.

Any colony on the Moon or Mars would need to be essentially self-sufficient from day one because the cost of getting payloads to eitehr are so vast to be uneconomical.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-the... by politician on Thursday February 17, 2022 @12:09PM (#30375611)

The Moon is the ultimate high ground in the Earth-Moon system. A mass driver that can fling rocks at the Earth is an extremely potent and easily maintained weapon. Much simpler than nukes. Could be remotely operated.

[ Parent | on HN ]