Why go 'horse and buggy' to Mars when we could go supersonic?

[corbe]

Why go 'horse and buggy' to Mars when we could go supersonic?

BY DOUGLAS MACKINNON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 06/27/20 12:00 PM EDT

As it was during the recent launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, carrying the Crew Dragon and its two-person crew toward a rendezvous with the International Space Station, the entire space community and much of the worldwide general public are truly excited about the planned July 22 launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

They should be.

NASA considers the 2,300-pound Perseverance rover to be a “robotic scientist.” Its astrobiology mission, much like the introduction to “Star Trek,”is to seek out new life — in this case, “signs of past microbial life on Mars.” In addition, Perseverance will characterize the Martian climate and geology, collect rock and soil samples, fly a drone over the surface, and serve as the latest stepping-stone for human exploration of the Red Planet.

It’s exciting and inspiring.

But, along with that excitement and promise comes a serious and potentially troubling disconnect. When Perseverance launches atop the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 541 booster, if you squint your eyes just right, it will seem exactly the same as when Viking 1 was launched on Aug. 20, 1975, to touch down on the Martian surface on July 20, 1976. The point is that, in the 44 years between the Viking 1 landing and the launch of Perseverance, we are using basically the same chemical rocket propulsion technology.

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https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/504522-why-go-horse-and-buggy-to-mars-when-we-could-go-supersonic

[Smokin Joe]

Supersonic shouldn't be so hard in the hard vacuum of space.
Sound can only propagate where there is a medium to transmit it.
Perhaps a different analogy would be more apropos.

[EdinVA]

And what happens IF something goes awry and radio active material is spew across 200 square miles?
The politics would destroy the space program for decades.

[Smokin Joe]

And what happens IF something goes awry and radio active material is spew across 200 square miles?
The politics would destroy the space program for decades.

Not just square miles...Cubic ones...

Obviously, the fusion drive would be for use in deeper space, not in atmosphere or Low Earth Orbit.

[EdinVA]

Not just square miles...Cubic ones...

Obviously, the fusion drive would be for use in deeper space, not in atmosphere or Low Earth Orbit.

That would make sense..

[Joe Wooten]

The ONLY fusion drive available with current technology -Orion - is banned by the treaty made in 1963 about nuclear weapons in space.

[Doug Loss]

If you want to know about the state of the art for fusion propulsion systems, read through the abstracts here:

https://tviw.us/tviw-2019-abstracts/

Look at Rob Adams, Jeff Greason, Gerry Jackson, Tom McGuire, Theo Mouratidis, Ray Sedwick, Uri Shumlak, Charles Swanson, Hafiz Ur Rahman, Ryan Weed, and Doug Witherspoon.  All these folks represent current active efforts at fusion propulsion systems.

[Smokin Joe]

If you want to know about the state of the art for fusion propulsion systems, read through the abstracts here:

https://tviw.us/tviw-2019-abstracts/

Look at Rob Adams, Jeff Greason, Gerry Jackson, Tom McGuire, Theo Mouratidis, Ray Sedwick, Uri Shumlak, Charles Swanson, Hafiz Ur Rahman, Ryan Weed, and Doug Witherspoon.  All these folks represent current active efforts at fusion propulsion systems.

Interesting. Thanks for the link.