Editing Mars Direct (section)

==History==

===Space Exploration Initiative===

On July 20, 1989, US President [[George H. W. Bush]] announced plans for what came to be known as the [[Space Exploration Initiative]] (SEI). In a speech on the steps of the [[National Air and Space Museum]] he described long-term plans which would culminate in a human mission to the surface of Mars.<ref>{{cite web |title= Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing |url= http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=712&year=1989&month=all |year= 2012 |access-date= September 1, 2012}}</ref>

By December 1990, a study to estimate the project's cost determined that long-term expenditure would total approximately 450 billion dollars spread over 20 to 30 years.<ref>{{cite web |title= 90 Day Review: The 90 day review of President H.W. Bush's SEI plan |url= https://history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf |date= October 19, 2010 |access-date= September 1, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041028173153/https://history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf |archive-date=October 28, 2004 |last1= Cohen |first1= Aaron }}</ref> The "90 Day Study" as it came to be known (also “90 Day Report” from people such as Zubrin), evoked a hostile Congressional reaction towards SEI given that it would have required the largest single government expenditure since [[World War II]].<ref name = "Mars Underground">{{cite video | people = Scott J. Gill (Director), Joshua B. Dasal (Writer), Scott J. Gill (Writer)| title = The Mars Underground| medium = Documentary | location = Denver, Colorado, USA| date = 2007| url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437325/ }}</ref>  Within a year, all funding requests for SEI had been denied.

[[Dan Goldin]] became [[NASA Administrator]] on April 1, 1992, officially abandoning plans for near-term human exploration beyond Earth orbit with the shift towards a "faster, better, cheaper" strategy for robotic exploration.<ref>{{cite web |last1 = Thompson |first1 = Elvia |last2 = Davis |first2 = Jennifer |title= Daniel Saul Goldin |date = November 4, 2009 |access-date= September 1, 2012 |url= https://history.nasa.gov/dan_goldin.html|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20090403225957/http%3A//history%2Enasa%2Egov/dan_goldin%2Ehtml |archive-date= April 3, 2009 }}</ref>

===Development===

While working at [[Martin Marietta]] designing interplanetary mission architectures, Robert Zubrin perceived a fundamental flaw in the SEI program.  Zubrin came to understand that if [[NASA]]'s plan was to fully utilize as many technologies as possible in support of sending the mission to Mars, it would become politically untenable.  In his own words:

<blockquote>The exact opposite of the correct way to do engineering.<ref name = "Mars Underground" /></blockquote>

Zubrin's alternative to this "Battlestar Galactica" mission strategy (dubbed so by its detractors for the large, nuclear powered spaceships that supposedly resembled [[Battlestar Galactica (ship)|the science-fiction spaceship of the same name]]) involved a longer surface stay, [[Interplanetary travel|a faster flight-path]] in the form of a conjunction class mission, [[in situ resource utilization]] and craft launched directly from the surface of Earth to Mars as opposed to be being assembled in orbit or by a space-based [[drydock]].<ref name = "The Case for Mars">{{cite book | last1 = Zubrin | first1 = Robert | author-link = Robert Zubrin | last2 = Wagner | first2 = Robert | last3 = Clarke | first3 = Arthur | title = The Case for Mars | publisher = Free Press | edition = 1st Touchstone | date = October 16, 1996 | page = [https://archive.org/details/caseformarsplant00zubr/page/51 51] | url = https://archive.org/details/caseformarsplant00zubr/page/51 | isbn = 0684835509 }}</ref>  After receiving approval from management at Marietta, a 12-man team within the company began to work out the details of the mission.  While they focused primarily on more traditional mission architectures, Zubrin began to collaborate with colleague [[David Baker (aerospace engineer)|David Baker]]'s<ref>{{cite web|title=Lat-Lon LLC|url=http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/BusinessEntityDetail.do?quitButtonDestination=BusinessEntityResults&nameTyp=ENT&entityId2=19991230608&srchTyp=ENTITY&fileId=19991230608&masterFileId=19991230608|website=Colorado Business Records|publisher=Colorado Secretary of State}}</ref><!-- adding citation since redlink --> extremely simple, stripped-down and robust strategy. Their goal to "use local resources, travel light, and live off the land" became the hallmark of Mars Direct.<ref name = "Mars Underground" />