mars mission paralyzed

king_rodent wrote: --- In ssi_list@... "Paul D. Fernhout"
> While I think Mars missions are premature (and will ultimately be
> hobbyist projects for people living in space habitats :-) I've
often
> wondered why not just put astronauts in a liquid environemnt in
the
> craft? Like "weightless" fish under water, the astronauts muscles
will
>
**mouth agape in horror**
Do you have any idea the mass penalty you'd be paying? Fill the
ISS with liquid?!? First of all, you're going to have to launch all
that liquid to ISS (anyone have data on the interior volume on
station and what that volume of PFC would weigh?). Secondly, what
will the PFC's do to the electronics currently installed? Third, all
that additional mass will need to be regularly bosted to a higher
orbit as ISS's altitude decays. Fourth, you'll likely burnout the
gyro's in minutes as the station tries to reorient itself.
My god. For an interplanetary mission... **studder, studder**
You'd be tripleing, probably quadrupling the mass of the spacecraft
and increasing the propellent needs by a factor of 50 or MORE!!!
I could only see 2 possible uses for such a technique. One;
military combat spacecraft that require rapid and numerous, high G
maneuvering. Two; an undiscovered, efficient method of propulsion
that get's enourmously high, top-end speeds (as in tenths of the
speed of light) but has no throttle ability (meaning, high G,
continuous acceleration over very long periods of time).
rodent (putting the eek in geek)
Couldn't you just design a mars ship so the crew section rotates? Did anyone forget
NERVAs and other high impulse high thrust engines either? Imagine a ship with
a continuous low gravity due to engine thrust. I don't know, we are not going
to Mars anytime soon, I don't care what the president wants. Bush is an idiot.