Mars Mission Back In the Cards After Budget Cuts 146
ananyo writes "NASA has said it will re-design its Mars exploration program, and that the new architecture would include input — and money — from the human program as well as the space technology division. Orlando Figueroa, the former deputy director for space and technology at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is to head up a seven or eight person committee, and to start developing mission concepts in the next month. One of those concepts would be a possible $700 million mission launching in 2018. The news offers a grain of comfort to a community still reeling from massive cuts to the Mars program."
Maybe better to read first, comment second (Score:5, Informative)
Here;
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/pss/ [usra.edu]
you can read the report from the Plantary Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council, to the Science Committee.
It'd be awesome if /. posters read any of this before posting snide/uninformed/trolly comments about NASA, Obama, Space-X, budgets, etc.
The blog Future Planetary Exploration rounds up reporting on this subject;
http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2012/02/ruckus.html [blogspot.com]
Re:700 million? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Give it a rest (Score:5, Informative)
The figure you've quoted seems to be from around as high as you can go. The other end of the scale is around earth normal or even a bit higher
Wait wait wait....what?
The max pressure on Mars is (according to wikipedia):
1,155 pascals (0.1675 psi) in the depths of Hellas Planitia
The average pressure at sea level on Earth is:
101.3 kilopascals (14.69 psi)
So Earth's average pressure at sea level is 87x that of the max on Mars...heck, at the top of Mount Everest, the pressure is about 4.90 psi, which is still 29x that of the max on Mars.
You need a pressure suit. Full stop.