Comments on: Road Map To Mars: Buzz Aldrin To The Rescue http://www.colonyworlds.com/2006/11/road-map-to-mars-buzz-aldrin-to-the-rescue.html Discussing reasonable ways to colonize our solar system Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:16:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Brian Dunbar http://www.colonyworlds.com/2006/11/road-map-to-mars-buzz-aldrin-to-the-rescue.html#comment-344 Brian Dunbar Wed, 29 Nov 2006 01:54:00 +0000 http://www.colonyworlds.com/2006/11/road-map-to-mars-buzz-aldrin-to-the-rescue.html#comment-344 I am no engineer nor a rocket scientist. All due respect to those who are, and certainly Aldrin deserves accolades.But twelve years from an article in Pop Mechanics to a flight-tested system? Boeing takes that long to build a new airplane - and we've been DOING jet transports since the 50s. The last time we built a spaceship that left orbit I was in diapers.The guys that built Apollo are dead or retired. There isn't anyone around with practical experience; whoever builds this is going to have to repeat the costly (money and time) mistakes already made.We'd have to have funding right now, blueprints in hand and ready to send off to the shipyard and maybe you'd see a system that would be ready in twelve years.I'd love to see it. But it seems foolishly optimistic to expect it in such a short time frame. I am no engineer nor a rocket scientist. All due respect to those who are, and certainly Aldrin deserves accolades.But twelve years from an article in Pop Mechanics to a flight-tested system? Boeing takes that long to build a new airplane – and we've been DOING jet transports since the 50s. The last time we built a spaceship that left orbit I was in diapers.The guys that built Apollo are dead or retired. There isn't anyone around with practical experience; whoever builds this is going to have to repeat the costly (money and time) mistakes already made.We'd have to have funding right now, blueprints in hand and ready to send off to the shipyard and maybe you'd see a system that would be ready in twelve years.I'd love to see it. But it seems foolishly optimistic to expect it in such a short time frame.

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