New Fusion Engine Gets to Mars in 30 Days

[DainBramaged]

[jakeXT]

1. Building a habitat could be done even with todays technology.

For your trip, you'll still have to wait for opposition, which is like every 2 years if I remember correctly.

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

...

"It doesn't require miracles, it requires money and a plan to address the technological engineering challenges," added Hubbard, who served as NASA's first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures.

Placing a mass of 30-40 tonnes -- the amount estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on the red planet -- would be one of the greatest challenges, along with the well-known problem of carrying or producing enough fuel to get back, Hubbard stressed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gBx8lRzFiC71lFQiqmYRINrfdUkA

[sakabatou]

2. Here's hoping it does work.

[formercia]

3. It could get there a lot faster

but you have to start slowing down at some point.

[struggle4progress]

4. It doesn't exist yet

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Send water, the habitat and an orbital refueling pod first.

[Lionel Mandrake]

6. This is ridiculous.

Controlled fusion hasn't yielded useful power on Earth, let alone in space. It's been just around the corner since the 1950s, and probably always will be. Besides, there's nothing humans can do in space that robots can't do faster, cheaper, and better. The whole manned space program is nothing but a publicity stunt. The stupid space station diverts funds from worthwhile space science, all of which is done by robots. Let's not mistake Star Trek and Star Wars for reality.

[struggle4progress]

7. +