re: Ed Wright disses HLLVs
Many answers may be found here:
http://www.astronautix.com/craftfam/martions.htm
Unfortunately Aldrin cyclers are not covered, nor the use of cycling asteroids. Also, the use of solar thermal propulsion systems has never been studied in great depth.
Please note that several designs proposed using medium lift launchers, and that several of the designs were international projects.
Finally, note that there were professionals other than Zubrin who had been working on the problem for years, and they had been doing so for years, with major government money.