He has a 26 ton two-person vehicle visit an NEA, pushed and returned via four 20 ton propellant modules. The mission takes ~2 years, but 1 year is spent at destination, perhaps making regolith burrowing a viable exercise to make a mini-base. His quoted power levels, from 11 years ago, are 5 kWe from a 1 ton array - should be possible to get even more juice for the same mass to power experimental industrial processing. Ultimately space storable fuel should be refined in-situ to demonstrate a Phobos propellant station.
Zubrin estimates ~7.7 tons of consumables, 4 tons of structure, 1 ton power system, 0.5 ton RCS, 1.5 tons equipment/furniture including EVA gear, and a 4 ton re-entry capsule. The vehicle is "parked" into a cycling orbit and the crew land in the ERV. Conceivably the vehicle can be refitted and reused.
Space/Science » in reply to Let us be honest here
Zubrin's "Gaiashield" is a good baseline...
The whole thread (59 posts)
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