
An Astronaut Who Might Get Us to Mars - johnny313
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-astronaut-who-might-actually-get-us-to-mars/
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sandworm101
Article doesnt use correct words. Author isnt a space geek. Vasimir engines
can indeed "escape earth orbit" ... they cannot get TO orbit, ie escape
gravity. Lots of other odd phrases and mistakes (galactic rays?). I stopped
after skimming a few paragraphs.

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valuearb
I’d love VASIMR to work, but the dev process has been horrifically long and I
am not optimistic. Someday, someone will figure it out.

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grondilu
I may be throwing a pie in the sky here, but is there any reasonable hope that
AI will be able to design rocket engines, including ones based on advanced
concepts like VASIMR, in the coming decades?

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maxxxxx
To me it seems AI will be good at optimizing things but probably not good at
coming up with breakthrough technology.

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crooked-v
Viewed from far enough away, all of rocketry is an optimization problem.

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maxxxxx
Very true at this time. Progress is very incremental until someone comes up
with a fundamentally new method.

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cratermoon
The company has a lot of work and testing to do to get VASIMR to a point where
it has better efficiency than existing operational electric thrusters. Also,
even Ad Astra admits that solar electric power will never generate the thrust
needed for some of their pie-in-the-sky goals, and that nuclear reactor
technology that doesn't exist yet would be needed.

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killjoywashere
There was a project in parallel with nautilus to build a nuclear airplane. It
can be done.

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cratermoon
Oh yes, I've seen the nuclear reactors that were built to power aircraft, they
are on display at the site of Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1* in Idaho.

*[http://www4vip.inl.gov/ebr/](http://www4vip.inl.gov/ebr/)

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rapnie
get _Us_ to mars, or that astronaut? well, i'll stay at home and clean up the
dust :)

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mikeash
He's 67 years old, so I doubt he'd be making the trip himself. Nor would you
or I, of course. Other astronauts would, presumably.

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rapnie
you'd probably be correct :)

while i am hugely interested in space exploration and such, i find it a folly
that we spend so much attention to going to Mars.. and going to spend billions
(in the long term maybe even trillions) of dollars on it while our planet - a
perfectly habitable home still - withers away by our doing.

imho we should get our priorities straight.. listening mr. Musk?

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happy-go-lucky
I never understand why some people are so gung ho about colonizing Mars while
ours is still the most hospitable planet in the observable universe. It may be
that their thoughts are driven by a survivalist instinct and they are using
Mars as a crutch.

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dwaltrip
The drive for novelty and exploration is deeply rooted in the human psyche. So
it really isn't that surprising at all.

As a plus, tons of beneficial technology and research directly resulted from
previous efforts in space. It seems highly likely this would also be the case
for efforts to get to Mars or any other space exploration programs.

I think the strongest case against Mars is simply that we should do it, but
not now, and instead in several decades. However, my guess is that we have
capability to do it now, in an effective manner and for a reasonable cost.

Someone has to pave the way for humanity to spread out into solar system. It
will certainly happen in the coming centuries, one way or another. The
incredibly rich energy sources available are by themselves such a compelling
reason that I think it is inevitable.

Of course, assuming some sort of terrible catastrophe of our own making
doesn't set us back a few thousand years...

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rapnie
> I think the strongest case against Mars is simply that we should do it, but
> not now, and instead in several decades.

yes, this is my feeling on this as well

