Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Mars transport concept

Too complicated

The Earth to Earth-Mars ship transfer looks okay, but a single docking with a booster stage might be better than multiple transfers via a space station, that is if a booster stage is needed at all.

You use solar thermal engines for the Earth/Mars ship. These have the same high specific impulse as nuclear engines, but without the problems and the costs. This efficiency eliminates the need to manufacture fuel on the Moon - which is not to say that you might not want to do that someday, but just not right now.

I kind of like the use of artificial gravity for an Earth/Mars ship. No one knows how people will tolerate months of exposure to the 1/3 gravity which exists on Mars. Added together with the months of zero g for the Earth/Mars transfers, and the combination of them may end up being fatal or crippling for some people. Forget Tranhab, I think we need to construct a small manned test item for this near the ISS.

For the transfers to and from Mars to the Earth/Mars ship, forget about using Phobos to manufacture fuel. Use Zubrin's process and manufacture the fuel on the surface of Mars, but to power the process use robotically deployed solar cell arrays instead of a nuclear reactor.

The other option is to use a variant of Zubrin's Mars Direct. I wish Zubrin would engineer a variant of his architecture to use solar thermal engines and photovoltaics. I can tell you that on a personal level this would be a whole lot more fun than digging out historic impact records.

By the way, the cost of a Molniya launch vehicle is now around $40 million, and adding in $10 for a long range Mars rover and landing stage, you come up with a +$50 million production cost. While this is low budget in Hollywood terms, where costs of between $100-$200 million per film are common, it is still higher than earlier ~$30 million prices. I don't know if you could use a Fregat launcher to do the job.

EP

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (9 posts)