Space Shuttle to Mars

The Space Shuttle is a manned vehicle, constructed to go from Earth's surface to Earth's orbit and vice versa. Five Space Shuttles have been built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. While two of them (Columbia and Challenger) had fatal accidents, three of them had a successful lifetime of use and are now in museums. The first flight was in 1981, and they were used until their retirement in 2011.

Eric Knight, founder of UP Aerospace and president of Remarkable Technologies, suggested sending the shuttles on a last journey towards Mars, instead of retiring them in a terrestrial museum. They would have been used in a manned one-way mission. Landing the shuttles on Mars's surface requires additional huge parachutes, for the atmosphere is too thin to support the shuttle's wings.

Discussion

This proposal is no longer current. The shuttles were not designed to be hung under parachutes, in any case.