Alternatives
A modified proposal, "Mars for Less", was developed by Grant Bonin, and has been adopted as the design reference mission for a new umbrella group of advocates, the MarsDrive consortium. The design retains most of the essential features of Mars Direct, but uses multiple medium-lift rocket launchers that are commercially available today (such as the Ariane V or the Delta rocket) to launch the crew vehicles, and their propulsion, separately, and mate them in orbit. By doing so, the multi-billion dollar development cost of a new launch vehicle is avoided. However, the orbital rendezvous required, while potentially reducing cost, has inherent risks.
A modified proposal, called "Mars to Stay", involves not returning the first immigrant/explorers immediately, or ever. Dean Unick has suggested the cost of sending a four or six person team could be one fifth to one tenth the cost of returning that same four or six person team. Depending on the precise approach taken, a quite complete lab could be sent and landed for less than the cost of sending back even 50 kilos of Martian rocks. Twenty or more persons could be sent for the cost of returning four.
Read more about this topic: Mars Direct
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