A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars

Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by mc808 on Thursday July 16, 2015 @08:43AM (#9896804)

To me it makes a lot more sense to start with a few decades of robotic mining and construction (and release publicly funded technology to the public domain so it can also benefit the 99.99999% of Earthlings who will never step foot on Mars). Get some infrastructure and fail-safes in place instead of sending people to almost certain death in a minimally viable mission, which would be a PR disaster.

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by VikingCoder on Thursday July 16, 2015 @10:37AM (#9897452)

> PR disaster

I keep saying it... There are billionaires alive today, who might actually chose to die on Mars. They could do it.

If James Cameron, Richard Branson, or Elon Musk decided they wanted to die on Mars, I think they could make it happen. And I don't think it would be a big departure from their personalities.

And I don't think it would be a PR disaster.

I think it would be inspiring as hell.

"All men die. Not all men truly live. Follow me to Mars. Colonize it. Make it a second home for humanity. Life is too precious to keep all of it in one basket."

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by pavel_lishin on Thursday July 16, 2015 @11:29AM (#9897798)

> And I don't think it would be a PR disaster.

It might be, depending on how you write it.

"Millionaire crackpot Elon Musk and his crew asphyxiated on Mars today, after the Banks Dome suffered a catastrophic failure. Musk spent over six billion of his personal wealth to get himself and his crew of seven to the red planet. He is survived by his wife and five children, all of whom have launched lawsuits against SpaceX, arguing that he was clearly not of sound mind."

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by Someone on Thursday July 16, 2015 @03:38PM (#9899429)

They may want to die on Mars, but I doubt they want to spend a year or so of their life in a moving prison.

Billions do not buy you much in terms of comfort on the way to Mars.

Yes, it Will be hard for non-billionaires, too, but they will give up less, and have more to gain; they aren't famous yet.

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by VikingCoder on Thursday July 16, 2015 @03:49PM (#9899482)

"James Cameron becomes first solo explorer to reach the deepest point on Earth. This was his 73rd trip into the ocean in a submersible, including 33 dives to the Titanic."

He also worked as a truck driver for a while...

...and he'd probably bring VR along, and have multiple crews back on earth filming anything he wanted to see...

And I'm talking about them near the end of their lives... I could envision it happening.

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by russ5russ on Thursday July 16, 2015 @08:53AM (#9896836)

Well then let's hope Elon Musk is the one that gets the technology going through SpaceX or something similar since he has a history of releasing his tech into the public domain.

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by ohitsdom on Thursday July 16, 2015 @09:48AM (#9897122)

He released advancements with Tesla into the public domain (which could have been observed/reverse engineered by examining products).

Advancements by SpaceX have not been released. They haven't even been patented because SpaceX is competing against governments, so Musk does not want to disclose information to them. And since the product (rockets/spacecraft) can't be examined by the public, there's really no incentive to public domain the tech and give it to competitors.

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Re:A Minimal Architecture for Human Journeys to Mars by panglott on Thursday July 16, 2015 @09:49AM (#9897130)

If we can spend a few decades doing robotic mining and construction, why would we send humans to Mars?

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