Dear Mr. Bill Gates:
As you may already know, I am the director of NASA's Project Mars. After years of research, my colleagues and I have developed a preliminary plan for a manned research mission to Mars. The purpose of this mission would be to investigate the prospect of creating a permanent research settlement on the surface of Mars. A mission like this has countless benefits, for you, and for the entire world. Many missions are being designed around the world, but we think that this one is the most feasible one. Here, we have included a description of our plan and the things that we have considered for the mission and an explanation for each one.
In order to use the least propellant possible, we have chosen the Direct trajectory to Mars. In this route, the spacecraft leaves from the ground on Earth from the and directly flies toward Mars in a curved path.
NASA diagram of VASIMR rocket functioning -
NASA image of VASIMR rocket test -
English: NASA artist's conception of a human missi...This trajectory requires either a very fast and powerful or a great deal of slower propellant, but greatly minimizes the in-space time the crew is subjected to. The flight to Mars only takes 150 days and the return trip takes 110 days. This is very low transit time compared to other possible trajectories, which greatly benefits the crew since they are at higher danger in space than on Mars (Crewed).
But since the time spent on Mars will be about 620 days, it would be irrational to try to fit all the equipment and cargo on one spaceship. Hence, our plan has two different ships departing Earth at two different times, both following the same trajectory. Our first ship will have the cargo, supplies, and equipment that the crew will need on Mars. The second spacecraft will be manned, and will launch after the Earth...