re: Don Peterson asks questions
Don has some good points...some of which are the same as my own.
But he makes one important error. Bush didn't exactly express a desire to send humans to Mars. It was an afterthought tacked on to a non plan.
Before CEV is finished...if it's ever started...it will go the way of the X-33 for similar reasons. Don is right the CEV has no ultility toward Mars as a goal. By the time they have Mars on the agenda the craft design will be 20 years old...so some other new craft would be needed...