Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to would need redesigning

Completely correct
Gary — (archived)

Daniel said:

"making the Mars vehicle suitable for Earth re-entry needs more than new/improved materials, re-arranging the interior centre-of-mass etc. - if you need to improve the lift/drag ratio for a return from Mars that would mean the whole shape itself has to be re-designed - the angle of the cone, relative width of the heatshield etc .."

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More simply stated: They toss the whole return-to-earth vehicle design into the trash can and start again from a clean piece of paper.

Supposably a return-from-Mars vehicle is part of the over all project agenda. A vehicle designed for return-from-Mars would offer significantly larger margins of safety for lunar-return. It makes no sense at all not to initially design the return-to-Earth vehicle for the more difficult case of return-from-Mars. Arguing that they'll retrofit the lunar-return vehicle into a return-from-Mars vehicle doesn't pass the sniff test. The two designs are apples and oranges. The conclusion is inescapable: They are not serious about sending people to Mars.

I should reemphasize that aeronautical engineers have known that the Apollo CM shape will not work for return-from-Mars since the mid-1960s. The reports indicating this are still on the library shelves, e.g. the NASA Ames Manned Mars study.

Gary

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