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  3. John Morales says

    I was told halfway through last year the bubble had burst.

    And yes, larpar. There’s a rather nice one of the Hitch, too.

    (Neither makes bones about it)

  4. StevoR says

    Hence the Zubrin Mars Direct plan for making rocket fuel back on Mars to then be used for the return journey :

    The first flight of the Ares rocket (not to be confused with the similarly named rocket of the now defunct Constellation program) would take an uncrewed Earth Return Vehicle to Mars after a 6-month cruise phase, with a supply of hydrogen, a chemical plant and a small nuclear reactor. Once there, a series of chemical reactions (the Sabatier reaction coupled with electrolysis) would be used to combine a small amount of hydrogen (8 tons) carried by the Earth Return Vehicle with the carbon dioxide of the Martian atmosphere to create up to 112 tonnes of methane and oxygen. This relatively simple chemical-engineering procedure was used regularly in the 19th and 20th centuries,[8] and would ensure that only 7% of the return propellant would need to be carried to the surface of Mars.

    96 tonnes of methane and oxygen would be needed to send the Earth Return Vehicle on a trajectory back home at the conclusion of the surface stay; the rest would be available for Mars rovers. The process of generating fuel is expected to require approximately ten months to complete.

    Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct

    Among various other plans that obvs consider this issue and address it. It’s not something that hasn’t already occurred to those intrested in planning such missions and then been addressed by them.

    I recall Zubrin’s plan as quoted being discussed decades ago.

    Dreadful and deceptive AI slop clip too.

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