Talk:Semi-autonomous colony

Crew rotation

I removed the part "Early in the history of the colony, crews would likely rotate, in a similar manner to a moon base or the ISS", because I find it extremely unlikely to have a regular personnel space travel between Earth and Mars. With the currently available transport technology those journeys consume vast amounts of money. Manned space flights cost several times the money compared with unmanned. With the same effort a young colony can be supported with so many things to make life easier. So, I am really in doubt about frequent manned space travel. It would strongly decelerate the development of the colony. -- Rfc 06:25, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Rotating the entire population of colonists (How many in an early colony?) would not be possible. Scheduled resupply flights would be launched every 2-3 years. Since we are bringing equipment to Mars, and we want to return large amounts of samples to Earth, we could make use of this to transport people to Mars. The transport systems would be reusable, and rocket launches would only be required for fuel. Mars Landers could be made, at least in part, on Mars, And fuel for the return would almost certainly be made on Mars. Do not think of space travel as a Hi-Tech no-no. Think of the apollo spacecraft, which used less computing power then a pocket calculator. Wouldn't a pnuematic computer be up to the task? I am saying, maybe, 5-6 people being transported on an irregular basis. T.Neo 08:04, 18 August 2008 (UTC)