And then there were two...
 

[url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57122914]China lands its Zhurong rover on Mars[/url]

On the NASA map supplied with the story, the Zhurong landing site in Utopia Planitia appears to be roughly halfway between the landing sites of Perseverance and Viking 2.

"Rocket plane flies to edge of space"
[URL]https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57214988[/URL]

It's a pity they mean the start of space and not the end...

[QUOTE=Nick;578902]"Rocket plane flies to edge of space"
[URL]https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57214988[/URL][/QUOTE]

So 2021 might be the year that we will see all of the following:
1. Paid passenger suborbital rocket space flight. (Blue Origin)
2. Paid passenger suborbital winged space flight. (Virgin Galactic)
3. An entirely private orbital crewed/passengered space flight. (Spac-X Dragon Inspiration 4)
4. Maybe 4 different types of crewed spacecraft launch into space from a single country . (Boeing Starliner)
5. Maybe a 5th type of (planned) crewed, private spacecraft to launch into space from the same country. (Space-X StarShip)
6. Maybe the launch of a 6th type crew craft (Orion on SLS) from the same country.

The [URL="https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2021/05/04/NASAa-Dreamchaser-spaceplane-sierra-nevada/9111620054852/"]Dream Chaser won't go this year[/URL]. But that will make 7 types flying concurrently.

To get that number of different crewed spacecraft types flown in the past one needs to take the entire USSR fleet of Voshkod, Vostok, and Soyuz; the entire USA capsule fleet Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo; and then add in the X-15 winged craft. There was no single year when all of those flew into space.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;322773][LIST][*]You have ~$1billion to work with.[/LIST][/QUOTE]I don't think you could achieve much with that budget. We are building a rail line in the UK (HS2) for high speed trains (up to 224 mph). There are only a few hundred miles of track, but that is costing many tens of billions of GBP.

So I think one should start your project by robbing a bank.

[QUOTE=drkirkby;579039]I don't think you could achieve much with that budget. We are building a rail line in the UK (HS2) for high speed trains (up to 224 mph). There are only a few hundred miles of track, but that is costing many tens of billions of GBP.

So I think one should start your project by robbing a bank.[/QUOTE]Good to see someone returning to the original topic of this thread.

I happen to think that one can do rather a lot with the resources specified and have suggested several missions.

Perhaps it is time for us to return to the original premises and see what may have changed our ideas in the interim.

[QUOTE=xilman;323013]I'd like to put something useful in the solar focal sphere but although it just about might be within budget, it would take far too long to get there. Increase both constraints by a factor of a few and it would become possible.

Closer to home, it would be nice to land a technology prototype on Mars which converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. The products are used as rocket fuel for sample return to earth. Once again, budgetary constraints are likely to be the limiting factor.[/QUOTE]Scratch the second one. It has been done in the subsequent 8 years.

[url]https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8926/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-extracts-first-oxygen-from-red-planet/[/url]

Some stats on booster performance and price
Falcon 9 (fully expended mode)
Payload to LEO 22,800 kg / 50,265 lb
Payload to GTO 8,300 kg / 18,300 lb
Payload to Mars 4,020 kg / 8,860 lb
Cost (in reused mode $62M [5500 kg to GTO])

Falcon Heavy (fully expended mode)
Payload to LEO 63,800 kg / 140,660 lb
Payload to GTO 26,700 kg / 58860 lb
Payload to Mars 16,800 kg / 37,040 lb
Cost (in reused mode $90M [8000 kg to GTO])

So, 2 launches on a FH is still within the $1billion budget.

We can open it up to a single launch on a Starship (That is likely to have an orbital flight by the end of December. I don't think the refueling will be demonstrated by the end of the year). So, that mass is 100,000 to LEO. Figure the cost at $100M for now.

[QUOTE=diep;493715]They say they got a heatshield.However the heatshield is just at 1 side of the spacecraft. We sure may hope the heat comes from just 1 direction - another thing i highly doubt.

Some missions you simply have to do in the end - but there is always too many expensive plans on the planet which have a long life and after some decades suddenly someone signs up for it, ignoring the problems with positive talk and wishful thinking.

From a distance seen this seems like that last. Let's hope i'm wrong.

It's gonna get cooked like a shrimp in a boiling pan.[/QUOTE]

Parker Solar Probe still going strong, by last check. Not a surprise, really, considering the success of previous crafts, like Helios 2.