NASA-ESA Study Shows Mars Direct Affordable

I thought this study was interesting enough to pass on
to these lists.

I found it interesting in that they broke down where
the differences in estimation were between ESA and
NASA and where potential cost growths were. My own
complaint on it is that from my own experience, the
cost growth for testing I think is very realistic and
should be put into the overall costs and not labelled
as a cost growth.

-Ryan Z

NASA-ESA Study Shows Mars Direct Affordable
May 26, 2004
For further information about the Mars Society, visit
our website at
www.marssociety.org

A joint study conducted by NASA and the European Space
Agency (ESA)
shows that a humans to Mars program based on the Mars
Direct mission
plan is affordable.

The results of the study are reported in a paper
written by Charles
Hunt of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC),
Huntsville,
Alabama and Michel O. van Pelt of the ESA European
Space Research
Engineering Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
According to the
Hunt/van Pelt paper, NASA costing models show that the
Mars Direct
plan could be implemented for a cost of $39.4 billion
for all
hardware development plus the first mission, with each
follow-on
mission costing an additional $7 billion, while ESA
costing models
show Mars Direct costs for development plus first
mission as $26.6
billion, with each follow on mission costing $5.2
billion.

While cost estimates for mission designs can never be
precise, it is
clear from the Hunt/van Pelt led NASA-ESA study that
the real cost of
a well-planned humans to Mars program can be kept to
the range of
several tens of billions of dollars, not the many
hundreds of
billions spuriously claimed by opponents of human Mars
exploration.

A complete session devoted to discussing plans for
achieving human
Mars exploration will be held at the 7th International
Mars Society
Convention, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, August
19-22. To present a
paper, submit an abstract of no more than 300 words to
msabstracts@... by May 31, 2004.

To read the complete Hunt/Van Pelt paper, click here.
http://www.marssociety.org/docs/MDCost.pdf

For further information about the Mars Society, visit
our website at
www.marssociety.org, or contact info@...