Mars-Or-Bust Part Two

Besides the philosophical reasons for wanting to attempt this journey lets consider the hardware for a moment . The most advanced spacecraft man has made is the space shuttle . A design that was created in the early part of the 1970s ,well over thirty years ago . Only recently has NASA been testing Scram jet technology . Something the wizkids down at the cape should've had developed years ago if they were not so busy looking for microbes on other planets in our solar system . Then there's the propulsion system . Currently we're still using solid rocket fuel . Something we've been using now for over fifty years . This is the main reason why the trip ( going one way ) is going to take around 18 months to complete . Now i can't really give JPL a hard time about this. They do have some new engine designs on the drawing board , and some like the Ion Drive for example ( an engine that emits ion particles ) to propel some of our space probes . Yet the rest remain on the drawing board due to pressure by environmental groups . Yes that's right , those special interest groups we've all come to know and love , but i'll save that for a later posting . Finally we have the ship NASA plans to send up . A modified high tech version of the old Atlas rockets used for the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s . So , using chemical rockets and the gravitational swing of the Earth ,or intrepid band of astronauts well be traveling 18 months in a compartment 8 by 8 feet in diameter . We've got to do better than that !