Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jonny Nexus" data-source="post: 1260844" data-attributes="member: 14664">Actually, no. A bloke called Robert Zubrin came up with a very clever way of getting to Mars that could go straight there without space station or moonbase.His home page is here.<a href="http://www.nw.net/mars/" target="_blank">http://www.nw.net/mars/</a>It also has details of his book (The Case For Mars) which I'd strongly recommend as a very interesting read.Basically, his mission requires two boosters of about the power of a Saturn 5. This could be made by using shuttle hardware.The thing that usually kills a Mars plan is that not only do you need enough fuel to send you there, you need enough fuel to send you back as well, and so you need enough "send" fuel to send not only you, but all the "return" fuel as well. (This usually means that you need *way* more fuel to get there and back than you would need merely to get there).Zubrin's mission plan (remember that Mars is in the right position to go there around once every two years) is this:1) Launch an unmanned rock carrying a Mars Return Vehicle (MRV). The booster sends the MRV straight to Mars. The MRV areobrakes in, and then lands - with its fuel tanks now practically empty.2) Then (and this is the clever bit) it reacts a bit of stuff its carried with it, with the Martian atmosphere, to actually manufacture fuel in-situ.3) Two years later (and only if the MRV both landed successfully and manufactured its fuel) a second booster launches a manned hab to Mars. The hab is capable of only one thing (flying to Mars and landing - although I think it can also do a "swing by" abort). It aerobrakes in and lands next to the MRV.4) A couple of weeks later the MRV for the second mission is launched. 5) The astronauts spend about nine months exploring. Then they get in the MRV and its takes them home, leaving the hab behind.SAFETYThis sounds dangerous (after all, you're taking off in a ship that can't get you home), but it's actually pretty safe.1) The mission time is longer than other mission profiles. Yes, but they spend a lot of that on the surface, and less in space, so they actually get less radiation.2) What if the MRV crashes, doesn't work? Then they don't set out.3) What if their hab is destroyed on landing? As long as they survive, they can live in the MRV.4) What if they don't land near the MRV? They have a rover with a range of 1000 km, so they can use that to travel to the MRV.5) What if they land further than 1000 km from the MRV? Then the next MRV (for the next mission) can be diverted to land next to them. And if that can't happen they have a few years of supplies anyway.There's actually a lot more survivability built in than with the Apollo missions.Initially Zubrin envisages each mission being in a different place. But after a while, you could put them in the same place, so that the habs build up into a base.</blockquote>

Verification