Quote:
Originally posted by Serk
The reason I've read is that with human cargo, they can't exert the tremendous acceleration and de-celeration G forces that they can put a mechanical probe through, thus a manned mission would have to go slower, plus not take quite as efficient of a route...
Us human's are just too fragile for that.....
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There are a number of concerns regarding duration of manned flight to Mars, but most of them are related to efficiency vs flight time vs mass to be transported vs distance to Mars at the time of liftoff. There are plenty of ways to bleed off velocity slowly, and acceleration doesn't have to high to get to Mars...it just gets you there faster because you don't have to aim so far ahead of the planet in its orbit to get there at a slower speed.
The tricky part is figuring out the optimal combination of flight duration (you don't want your astronauts floating around weightless for too long, or they won't be able to do anything when they get there) and mission goals, with a touch of "how long do we stay there" thrown in for good measure.
Humans are more fragile than machines, to be sure, but that isn't the only limitation in a speedy traverse.