Space Frontier Foundation

Go Bob! totally agree...

Bob, agreed whole heartedly.

The main problem with the ISS, in the broad sense, is that it was designed by politicians, not engineers. After a decade of time, 36 shuttle flights and numerous ones by Russia, Europe, and Japan, it is STILL not finished and truly operational. It took too long and cost too much, and needlessly put astronauts at risk on all those hours of EVA's. ... Read MoreFor about the same amount of money, or even less, a heavy lift launch vehicle could have been developed, and lofted the whole thing in 4 or 5 flights (with larger modules too), and only one or two manned assembly flights would have been needed. It could have been operational and productive by the second year. But instead, because it had to fit in a constrained NASA budget, we did it ass-backwards. OK, that is looking backwards. Looking forward, we obviously need to keep it in orbit and use it long enough to justify it's expense. It would be dumb to not do so. And if it can be made reliable with enough spare parts, perhaps instead of de-orbiting it at the end of it's scientific lifetime, we could use it as the habitation module for a Mars expedition. Why not? Couple it with nuclear powered plasma rocket engines being developed by Chang Diaz's company Ad Astra and we could be in Mars orbit in only 39 days.