4chan alerts me to Robert Zubrin's 1996 proposal, for a manned mission to Mars in 2001. It's terrible.
For the low, low price of 2.15 billion y2kbux, Zubrin could buy you a trip to Mars... shadowing Mars... and back again. The crew would number two, each of whom will hate the other with a blistering hate a fortnight out of 1 AU. They share this cramped space for years because the journey is a Hohmann aka the long way 'round (the Sun). It's all 3.? m/s2 so, tack on a LOT of physical-training back here on Earth when they are done. Best part: they don't land on Mars. So: Apollo ≤10 / Apollo 13 energy.
At $2.15G the US Government would get involved, like SLS and Webb. So, forget that ridiculous number, it's a sink. Forget the timeline too (counting from 1996: 2001, 2003, 2005).
The limit, of course, was that the total mass had to be 25.9 tonnes.
Starship, in a couple years, can buy many times that with a similar number of launches. That means first off: longer axis, so more artificial gravity without Coriolis, and more room to get away from the crewmate(s). Nitrox to fit. Better shielding.
For chrissakes a Starship-propelled mission doesn't even have to shadow Mars; the mad lads can bring enough propulsion to dock/land on Deimos, keep the hab spinning. Know what that means? Means that's more mass not interfering with the crew. Earth can send whatever cargo alongside them, without life-support, to set up all sorts of stuff over there. Better yet: before crew gets there; that unmanned "mission" mostly sets up a propellant-factory. Crew just needs to unpack what the robots didn't.
If we must have a there-and-back journey, send rodents on the Aldrin. The Athena was entirely useless.
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