Athena: A Possible First Step In A Program Of Human Exploration

R. Zubrin. (1996), JBIS, 49, pp.431-434

Refcode: 1996.49.431

Abstract:

Athena is a proposal for a piloted Mars mission that could be launched as early as 2001 for a cost of about $2 billion. It is not an optimal mission plan for human exploration of Mars but a way to get started at a cost at least an order of magnitude less than any alternative offered to date. There is no technology in this plan that does not currently exist and no hardware development required that could not be completed in time for a 2001 launch.