Dowd_2001abstr

 

OUTLINE OF AN INTEGRATED SPACE PROGRAM

 

Martin Dowd

martdowd@aol.com

 

A necessary step to the improvement of the U.S. (and a fortiori, at this point, International) space program is the retirement of the space shuttle. It is a costly behemoth, continuing to eat up the U.S. space dollar with little achievement. We will present an alternative program, including a manned Mars mission, within an integrated program using vastly more efficient (but not greatly unconventional) primary Earth launch vehicles. A twenty-year length is quite realistic.