Exploring Mars With Captain Kangaroo and Big Bird
And a nuclear-powered mobile base camp to go with them
Elon Musk wants to build a city on Mars by 2050. NASA would just like to get there.
Elon thinks he can build his city for $100 billion or maybe $10 trillion. You know how pesky those extra zeros can be. NASA would be happy if they could put two people on Mars for $100 billion. In any event, NASA will buy tickets from SpaceX.
Do not despair. I’m not going to argue about how all the money spent could pay for decent healthcare or save all the babies from drowning in Pakistan, when the high-end figure would be less than a third of the defense budget.
To answer the question of who will land a man on Mars, NASA or SpaceX, it’s SpaceX. If NASA makes a landing first, it will be riding on a Starship. SpaceX is testing a spacecraft that can make the trip. NASA is talking about the second or third generation of SLS, which will never be built. NASA is looking at a launch cost of $2 billion while SpaceX talks of $1 million. NASA projected the cost of a manned mission to be in the neighborhood of $100 billion. I don’t believe either, but SpaceX has much more wiggle room.
NASA was given the choice of a moon base or a Mars landing, but not both. NASA chose the moon, but it is still…
