As the discussion below on methods and requirement of manned Mars is off to the side, I thought I'd move it to the top -

One given in this discussion is that the impact hazard has been dealt with thoroughly, and not in some half a** make believe way -

Another given is that since Mars frequently endures staggering radiation deluges from our Sun, it is not reasonable to expect that anything more than a heavily shielded manned research station will be built there, ever.

End of preliminaries -

It is quite interesting to note that when Soviet space engineers compared nuclear, photovoltaic, and solar dynamic elctric systems for manned Mars flight, they decided that it would be cheaper to go with non-nuclear reuable systems, even for a few flights - These things aren't cheap.

This decision explains to a large extent subsequent Soviet research on closed loop life support systems - work that Russia could not afford to continue indepently, and in which France began participating several years back, though I do not know if that effort is ongoing, as my attention has been elsewhere -

Dr. Aldrin arrived at pretty much the same conclusion about re-usability as the Soviet teams of engineers, working soley by himself, and he further developed transfer orbits that were very different than theirs -

Neither examined the use of solar thermal engines, as there were no solar thermal engines to examine -

Given that re-usable systems are cheaper, even at a level of a few flights, the next question is what is the cheapest way to build re-usable systems? The answer to this must be to use standard communications satellite launchers of around 20 metric tons capacity, and simply to design and make the parts of the manned Mars craft at this mass or less.

Still, before investing in this infrastructure, the question of possible life on Mars must be definitively answered. Given the radiation baths, the likelyhood of these is low, but personal opinion or analysis counts for nothing here - only hard data counts.

The only way of gaining this data will be with long range rovers. My opinion is that based on the demand of the public reaction for images from Pathfinder, these rovers could be financed by the private sector, run on a commercial basis, and earn a hefty profit.

While NASA prices are much higher than Russian prices, my guess is that someone is already talking with NASA about broadcast rights for the 2003, or at least for re-broadcast rights for entertainment (not scientific) purposes.

EP