[Old-old-Ivy]

Until we can manage to sufficently shield humans from the radiation they would encouter during a trip from earth to mars, we won't be sending anyone there, if it they would be able to survive once they got there. This is the biggest problem facing manned mars mission planners currently.

if we have the enegria rocket... nothing a chunk of 100 ton armor can't do! [rofl] i seen some creative design on this, like putting the hab module on it's side, so only the top faces the sun, this greatly reduce the surface area you need to sheild, and the rest of the radiation is cover by sticking the water and gas you need in tanks surrounding the hab module.

the main problem is really just getting enough mass up there. we need to wait for NASA to finish it's superlifter.