Bob Zubrin Mars Soc alleges SpaceCommision supplied fake numbers

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Mars Society's Zubrin alleges NASA may be supplied with rigged and inflated cost estimates

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/space/1790

In an analysis released last Friday, Dr. Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society, offered the following assessment:The Mars Society has examined copies of the cost projections being used by the Augustine Committee in currently considering the future of NASA's human spaceflight program. These estimates, generated by the Aerospace Corporation, a US Air Force funded policy oracle, have no scientific basis and have clearly been composed to make the case that human space exploration is unaffordable

So will China beat NASA to Mars?

 

[sojourner]

Wow, Zubrin is starting to sound less like a scientist and more and more like a religious zealot.

If he really thinks the cost estimate of Ares V is too high, maybe he should look at how over budget Ares I already is. I am not saying that we should abandon the space program, but the Ares system is a badly designed boondoggle that should never have been started. Direct/Jupiter is a much better design in almost every way - even according to a many NASA engineers.

 

[scotthm]

So will China beat NASA to Mars?

Hasn't NASA already sent things to Mars?

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[Marc]

Wow, Zubrin is starting to sound less like a scientist and more and more like a religious zealot.

If he really thinks the cost estimate of Ares V is too high, maybe he should look at how over budget Ares I already is. I am not saying that we should abandon the space program, but the Ares system is a badly designed boondoggle that should never have been started. Direct/Jupiter is a much better design in almost every way - even according to a many NASA engineers.

Don't tell me - the military is sticking it's demands in and NASA is going to end up with the same problems as the shuttle - jack of all trades, master of none.

 

[sojourner]

Nope, the military wants nothing to do with this clusterf___. They got smart after Challenger and developed their own launchers.

This time it's all down to NASA management.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Hasn't NASA already sent things to Mars?

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yeah robots, the public usually doesn't give a damn about robotic craft. Manned landings however would be watched by billions