Page 162 - MY STORY

those issues a little more than ten years ago. Hell -- we

did that in spades! If NASA and the U.S. Government
stayed the course with interest and funding, we just knew
the objective was achievable. So – here’s how it went.

We thought we knew what the “big elephants in our tent”
were. The key risk elements, as we saw them at that time,

were centered around:

> Assembly of a huge stack of very large elements

(modules for crew, control, propulsion, landing,
transportation on Mars, Mars habitation shelter, return

and re-entry system).
> The rocket propulsion system
> Cosmic, solar and nuclear radiation human protection
> Long-term (multiyear) living environment (food, water,

oxygen, temperature, waste)
> Long-term low (or no) gravity during months of space

travel
> Crew size, makeup, and emotional wellbeing
> Long communication delays with earth

So, let’s take these one at a time to get a sense of what we
were dealing with and what we planned to do about it.

Some are overlapping issues (and solutions).