Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to The New Lunar lander And New Moon/Mars Crew Vehicles

Manned Flybys/Orbital missions
Adam — (archived)

Hi All

At Unmanned Spaceflight some Venus mission ideas were discussed which have merit in light of the 'New' Ares architecture. One was a 1967 design study of a manned flyby to Venus which passed within a planetary radius of the surface. Interestingly it used the 'Wet Workshop' approach which made a habitat of a slightly modified Saturn IVB stage after leftover volatiles had been vented. That was the original approach for 'Skylab' (Skylab I was meant to be 'Wet' then Skylab II was after that) and the proposed Moonlab would also be a 'Wet Station'. Thus an interplanetary mission would be launched using a single Saturn V.

Using two Saturns would allow an orbital mission parked in a Highly Elliptical Venus Orbit (HEVO) - if you trust my BOTE computations. I think Mark Wade has a Mars Flyby and Orbital mission on file using roughly the same architectures.

What staggers me is that no one in the 1960s then wondered "Hey! What if we send the MEM separate to the manned habitat? It could wait for the crew who would then do a quick surface stay and then boost back out of orbit, all without NERVA!"

If you can send a 50 ton 'Wet Lab' you can send a 25 ton MEM.

And since Ares is the 'son of Apollo' can we do 'Wet lab' style missions with it too?

Adam

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