Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Tell me Al...

Real Science & Engineering At Hab
Mark Eby — (archived)

You are not even an engineer yet think you are better qualified than Zubrin and all the NASA egineers who worked on the reference mission to judge whether or not a Mars mission is feasible? Being a skeptic is good, but such outright rejections based on the debatable reasons you've given so far are not.

You have a very good grasp of science based on your comments I've seen over the years especially for one who does not practice science. Case in point being you did a far better job of rebutting Al's support of Barry's science than me. However, I see little evidence for engineering aptitude given your comments above. A lot of engineering is trial and error not just testing scientific theories. Many standards are based on what's been tried and worked rather than some theoretical assessment. Many processes developed by chemists in the lab suck in implementation because they have no concept of the practical matters involved in scale up.

A case of real science done at the desert hab was developing microsampling techniques for collecting microbes from dry sandy environments (ie not just grabbing big chunks of sample) and proper sample preparation for microscopic examination. If that is not new science please tell me where that's been done before. I'm not up to date on stuff like that, but it was presented as new work.

Human factors such as hab lay-out are another example of useful work. The Eurohab has been redesigned based on usability issues raised with the first two habs. There is no scientific theory for optimum hab lay-out.

Regards,
Mark

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