COST OF SPACE

* * *

"Murray, now that you and the engineers at Mercedes-Benz have figured out a way to get to Mars and return safely, we owe NASA the proposal we promised," Matt Flynn told his brother. "The Red Box and Turbopod play key roles in the mission. Let's package your concept and all the calculations into a briefing for presentation at the end of the month. NASA has asked us to provide a bid for our consulting services, and we don't want to disappoint them, much less President Werner."

"I know, Matt, but ..."

"But what?"

"Well the more I think about it, the more I realize that going to Mars is the wrong thing to do," Murray said.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked with a real concern in his voice.

"Well, brother, let's review the situation," Murray replied. "First, why are we going there? The answer can't be that it's in the human nature to explore. That was fine for Columbus. But his goal was to find riches for Spain. We can't say that about Mars. After 15 probes of one kind or another, we're not even sure there's water there, much less riches of some sort to benefit mankind. In my opinion, the return on the investment simply isn't there."

"Murray, please explain your logic to your dense brother," Matt said.

"OK. I'll try," Murray said. "First, let's look at the cost. Industry calculates that to put a kilogram — that's 2.2 pounds — in orbit costs $10,000. Each Apollo landing on the moon cost $18 billion in 1960s dollars. Given the number of necessary launches and infrastructure to support a Mars mission, the cost could be $500 billion dollars. Even a consortium of nations doesn't have that kind of money. And there are more pressing social needs today. But the real question — the showstopper, really — is what do we get for the money?"

Matt looked intently at his brother, then took a deep breath and said, "I'm listening. What are your concerns?"

"Well let me list a few," Murray replied. "First, Mars' atmosphere is 1 percent of that of the Earth. We would have to bring our own oxygen, and to make enough oxygen to support a base would take many missions. And while Mars' daytime temperature is about 60 degrees, at night it's minus 100 degrees."

"That's pretty cold," Matt said.

"And that's not all," Murray continued. "You can't take enough water. One scientific estimate is 127 tons of water would be required to support a small team of astronauts during the 1,100-day mission," Murray said. "And they have to eat, too. Based upon our experience at the International Space Station, each astronaut would need 2 tons of freeze-dried food. Of course, they won't eat much if the sun's radiation kills them first. And the swelling of the optic nerve could lead to blindness."

"You're a real ray of sunshine, you know that?" Matt joked.

"I'm serious, Matt. The Martian soil may be toxic with its chlorinated salts would be bad for the thyroid gland. And dust would cover everything," Murray said. "Which is to say nothing of the psychological effects of such a mission. The recently completed Mars-500 project, where a small crew remained isolated in a small enclosure, highlighted the potential psychological problems that astronauts could face."

"What about mining Mars?" Matt asked.

"Mining would be a waste of time and resources," Murray said. "It wouldn't be cost-effective to bring it back. Don't you see, Matt? All mission planning to date is single-string. There is no redundancy to reduce risk. Even our own plan is single-string!"

"OK, I get the picture, Murray," Matt said. "If not Mars, what about Venus?"

"It's the same situation but even worse — it's 750 degrees there!" Murray exclaimed.

"Wow. I had no idea," Matt said, shaking his head from side to side. "So what's the solution?"

Murray was quick to reply. "In our briefing to NASA, we provide two missions. The first is the Mars mission we've developed, complete with its quarter-trillion-dollar price tag. The second mission is to the moon at a fraction of the cost and with the potential for a real payback. The plan is to develop technologies on the moon that can be directly applied to counter Earth's global warming."

"Like what?" Matt asked.

"Well," Murray began, "there are a number of technologies that can be developed and tested on the moon which can make a difference — an indoor greenhouse with hydroponics on a large-scale such as an O'Neill cylinder, economic desalination to split water to get oxygen and longer-life batteries that are truly disposable."

"Impressive," Matt said.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There could be inflatable structures with hardened ceramic coatings, wearable sensor systems on clothing, advanced retinal communications, anti-muscle- and bone-loss processes, even lower cost solar power from 3-D printed panels. And there are dozens more we can discuss with the NASA engineers and scientists."

"I see what you mean, Murray," Matt said. "Saving our planet is a top priority, and the moon base can be instrumental in this effort. But what if NASA insists on going to Mars? Can we play an active role? Should we?

Murray thought for a moment before replying. "Matt, we're already billionaires," he said. "We don't need the consulting money. We need to apply the Red Box anti-gravity device in a wide variety of transportation applications that will reduce the carbon footprint."

"Brother, you're right as usual," Matt replied. "We'll start on the briefing in the morning."

MARS vs. MOON

* * *

A day later Matt called Reiner Strassburg, Chief Engineer at the Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Center in Sindelfingen, Germany, a suburb of Stuttgart.

"Reiner, my friend!" Matt began. "Now that your team and my brother have a possible solution for a Mars mission, please plan to accompany Murray and me when we brief the Director of NASA in Huntsville at the end of the month."

"Count me in," Reiner replied. "And if it's OK with you, I'd like to bring two associates: a propulsion engineer and a mechanical engineer who led the Turbopod redesign for space travel."

"That's a great idea. I'll call you soon when I have a meeting date and time," Matt said as he hung up the phone.

A week later, Matt got a call from NASA confirming the meeting at 10 a.m. on May 26 in Huntsville. He phoned Reiner to relay the information. "We're on at NASA on May 26," he said. "Please provide the names and vital statistics of your associates so we can...