Front Matter; Why explore Mars?; Planning space campaigns and missions; Getting there and back; Critical Mars mission elements; In situ utilization of indigenous resources; Mars mission analysis; How NASA is dealing with return to the Moon; Why the NASA approach will likely fail to send humans to Mars prior to c. 2080; Back Matter
Summary
In Human Missions to Mars Donald Rapp looks at human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective. He begins by describing the pros and cons of robotic exploration versus human exploration and then examines the ideas for sending humans to Mars from the point of view of both the enthusiast and the skeptic. Chapter 2 describes how space missions are planned and how they may be achieved as a sequence of separate steps. Chapter 3 deals with the complex issues relating to the outward journey to Mars and the return leg. The author deals with propulsion systems and with the analysis of the
