Space.com: NASA's plans for the mammoth Ares V rocket could do more than just launch new lunar landers and cargo to the moon. It could also haul massive telescopes that dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope or fling deep space probes on faster missions to the outer planets.
Ares rocket could launch giant space telescopes
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Since this bad boy is able to lift 180 metric tons into LEO, a beautiful aspect of the ARES V will be large scale LEO construction projects.
I could see 10 of these boosters lifting a comprehensive manned Mars mission vehicle’s, or a simmilar vehicle’s components for travel out into the outer planetary solar system and into the Kuiper Belt.
The Ad Astra Rocket Company is testing a plasma rocket called the VASIMR which in theory could permit trips to Mars in only 39 days and manned missions to the inner Kuiper Belt in a year or less when powered by nuclear fission reactor electrical power plants.
The VASIMR rocket is expected to be tested on the International Space Station later this year.