

Dreaming big: planning a human mission to outer solar system - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/dreaming-big-planning-a-human-mission-to-outer-solar-system.ars

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dstorrs
The problem I see with this mission is that it's essentially another "flags
and footprints" mission on a grand scale: yes, the mission time is much
longer, so perhaps there would be time to do something valid at Neptune or
Saturn, but there aren't many things that could be done on such a mission that
would make it cost-positive with an initial cost of $14 trillion. So what
happens? We go once, can't afford to go again, and suddenly everything in the
inner system is anticlimactic and the public loses interest in space for
another 40 years.

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stcredzero
50's Orion pulse-detonation combined with a "living off the land" strategy
would enable manned exploration of the outer solar system in short order.

MPD thrusters might be good for manned Mars missions, but robotic probes are
still a much better deal for the outer system.

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dstorrs
The issue with Orion is that the radioactive byproducts of the pulses get
trapped by Earth's magnetosphere and fall inward to the planet surface. I
believe it was Einstein who calculated that every Orion launch -- whether from
the surface or near space -- would cause 2 people to die of cancer.

Finding a politician who is willing to stand up for a cause with that fact
associated would be tricky at best.

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run4yourlives
FYI it was Dyson, according to wikipedia, and the number was .5 to 1 cancer
victim.

Of course, this issue is solved by launching from higher orbit and/or the
moon.

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Tamerlin
That also helps with the materials issue. The moon has a lot of metals that
would be useful for such a mission.

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Debugreality
I had a thought regarding the radiation shielding issue I'm not sure how they
calculated the mass but it seems to me if they focused on shielding the
sleeping "pods" and allowed other common activities to be completed with these
small areas so the crew could spend upwards of 80% of the trip in these tiny
protected areas of the ship then they could greatly reduce the protection
material needed...

