Hitch Hike to Mars

What a grand idea!

NASA could build a shelter on the roid and land supplies on it each time it passes by the earth several years prior to the actual trip, NASA could stockpile fuel, water, food, ect on the roid years in advance. Interesting idea !

Hitch hike to Mars inside an asteroid
17:46 23 October 2006
NewScientist.com news service
David Shiga

A small population of asteroids pass by both the Earth and Mars in their orbits. So the idea is that a spacecraft containing Mars-bound astronauts could rendezvous with one of these objects as it goes by the Earth and travel with it until it nears the Red Planet.

www.newscientistspace.com...

I really hope they do this, it's one of the smartest Idea's to come out of NASA in years. I want them to have many of them up there though so that there is a Taxi coming near earth every other month.

How about the Moon though, could be useful for that stepping stone as well.

Wow, that's a very good idea, I suppose NASA is'nt completely
useless.

Actually the idea does IMO show that some of those in NASA
are capable of abstract thought processes.

How about the Moon though, could be useful for that stepping stone as well.

Could'nt we just use a Space Station for that though?
I mean the moon is close enough to us, that a Space Station at the
LaGrange(SP?) point would be more useful.

The space station isn't exactly built for that. For an Earth to Moon taxi, I invision it making a stop at the ISS to pickup passengers, but that's it. Most of the time it will just be ferrying supplies from LEO to the Moon without the need for a Pilot. Eventually, if we manage to start making fuel on the Moon for the Mars trip, you'll be able to make the taxi ferry fuel to the initial Mars-Earth Taxi.

I don't mean the ISS, rather a Space Station built at the halfway
point between Earth and Luna.

Like have a Shuttle service between the Earth and the station and
another Shuttle between the station and the moon, and have the
Earth Shuttle drop pasengers off at the station, and pick up retur-
ning passengers from Luna, and have the station-Luna Shuttle
return to the Moon with the new passengers.

Originally posted by iori_komei
Wow, that's a very good idea, I suppose NASA is'nt completely
useless.

Actually the idea does IMO show that some of those in NASA
are capable of abstract thought processes.

it would suprise me they got the idea from a 15 year old, who posted it somewhere on a thread

Originally posted by Spartannic

Originally posted by iori_komei
Wow, that's a very good idea, I suppose NASA is'nt completely
useless.

Actually the idea does IMO show that some of those in NASA
are capable of abstract thought processes.

it would surprise me they got the idea from a 15 year old, who posted it somewhere on a thread

Huh? Who are you calling a 15 year old? Me? Iori? SIRR?

BTW This idea has been around for a while. First I heard of it was in the mid-90s.

none of u guys !! but face it most of the ideas that are simple like that aren't from those 'diehard technoguys' they think of new stuff like they have 2 cost billions !!

Originally posted by Spartannic
none of u guys !!

but face it most of the ideas that are simple like that aren't from those 'diehard technoguys' they think of new stuff like they have 2 cost billions !!

Ah I get you now. Simplest answer is usually the best one, that even a kid could come up with it.