Nautilus-X could be NASA's first manned deep-space explorer

I am very excited about Nautilus-X.

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/02/nautilus-x-coul.php

http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/~fiso/telecon/Holderman-Henderson_1-26-11/Holderman_1-26-11.ppt

The PowerPoint is a thing of beauty.

This is the sort of thinking, planning and building that NASA should be doing. This is a proper spaceship!

My friend suggested that we still some way off working out how to overcome the debilitating effects of long term space travel both physically and psychologically.

However, I believe that the centrifuge with artificial gravity will make a big difference. They are hoping to test a version of it on the ISS. With the Mars 500 mission underway in Moscow we are already doing long-term psychological experiments on the type of isolation required for a long range space flight.

I'm just excited that there appears to be some original thinking and planning going on inside NASA.