Life on Mars

[unixronin]

The Washington Post quotes the London Daily Telegraph quoting speculative details about a possible profile for a manned Mars mission.  It's a shame the guy from the Telegraph fails to understand what he just wrote (working from NASA notes, obviously) about how much of the mission will be spent in zero-G.

C'mon, guys, Mars has about a third of a gee.  For a trip that long, NASA's been talking for years about designing a ship that can be spun on a tether to provide artificial gravity.  It would even be entirely feasible to adjust the spin rate during the mission, to vary between a third of a G at the Mars end and about, say, two-thirds G at the Earth end, in both directions.  This would likely almost eliminate mineral loss and provide progressive gravity acclimation throughout the trip.

(Linky from koyote)