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10-July-2008, 10:05 PM
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How small can we go?
Exploring Mars requires robotic drones, so, how small can we go? Could we get our drones small enough a person can launch them to Mars from their own back yard?
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Fields of Space LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. In the Year 2525. "One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind". If an astronaut doesn't need good grammar, niether does you. Host of Seraphim 
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10-July-2008, 10:31 PM
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Depends on how big a launch complex you can fit in your backyard.
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10-July-2008, 10:43 PM
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If you aren't in a hurry, I suppose it could be made very small. Imagine a payload the size of a grain of rice attached to a solar sail about a meter in diameter with carbon nanotubes as the guy-lines. Inside the payload are a collection of nanofactories.
How small a rocket do you need for getting to Low Earth Orbit with a minimum sized payload? I'm guessing that it is still pretty large, maybe the size of a Posiden missile.
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Forming opinions as we speak
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12-July-2008, 03:40 PM
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I dunno...wrt to probes, I think diminishing returns would eventually kick in (pardon the pun). For instance, it may be possible to design a paperweight-sized lander (roughly 1/3-4th the size of Sojourner) but it couldn't carry much of a payload. As hinted at in earlier posts, this will probably have to wait for greater miniaturization than we have currently.
Me, I'm waiting for the Vanguard-sized outer planets probe...
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"He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River." --Anonymous
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12-July-2008, 06:11 PM
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
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