What would the Russian space program look like today if they had spent it sending Cosmonauts to Mars?

RAND estimates that they've spent something like $211 billion USD (plus many tens of thousands of people that could have been put to work).

Also, how would that have affected US space policy?

More interested in a For All Mankind type scenario, vs discussing politics.

West coast best coast! Bacon! Orange! Stubby bad! More data more better! Mute POWAR (maybe not)!!

Summing up in general, here the biggest problem, in addition to the great temperature difference between oxygen and kerosene, would be the issue of the kerosene pre-chamber, my idea is, what if, in that combustion chamber, we create like a kind of pre-chamber, where the kerosene is burned with a stoichiometric mixture, avoiding the ollin, and in addition, it will be the other amount of kerosene not yet burned, which will pass around that, cooling it

Of course, it is much easier said than done, but tell me, what do you think?

I was just thinking that a slightly lightened maus could probably be launched on a starship test flight and succesfully be put into LEO.

It would be hilarious, and it would also be a fun nod to the origins of american spaceflight.

During launches the whole road from Brownsville to Boca Chica is closed and spectators have to retreat quite far away. The standard viewing place is South Padre Island which is quite far away.

If you tried to sneak onto Boca Chica beach around the roadblocks then someone would likely spot you and come escort you out of the exclusion zone. Either a SpaceX employee or the local police.

But what about the Mexico side of the border? I think it's closer than South Padre Island and the Texas police don't have jurisdiction to come escort you. Do SpaceX have the right to forcibly move people in another country? It's possible the Mexican authorities wouldn't be there to enforce any exclusion zone.

I'm in England so I'm not actually going to follow through on this plan but I'm curious how well it would work in theory.

"Reddit Experts on rspacex 2 years ago downvoting my comment.

I don't have any experience in aerospace, but wouldn't it become increasingly difficult to control it, especially with it's wings stretched even further apart?