> how, after 6 months' travel in deep space, will they accomplish anything at a Mars base, even mere survival?
I expect the answer is spin gravity. Have a long cable with a counterweight on the other end, spin it at some rate. We would need some studying about the exact impacts (how hard is it to learn to start/stop compensating for Coriolis forces?), but it'd be much easier than full weightlessness.
I expect the answer is spin gravity. Have a long cable with a counterweight on the other end, spin it at some rate. We would need some studying about the exact impacts (how hard is it to learn to start/stop compensating for Coriolis forces?), but it'd be much easier than full weightlessness.