Mars Voyage

SpaceFlights.us: Mars Voyage
Posted in: Mission_Control | by Brian Taylor | 2011 Feb 02


Space Travel

It takes a long time to make the trip to Mars. Would be nice if you could make the trip with a full support team. We should start thinking of transport ships that can handle crews of more than 10 astronauts at a time. How about going on that trip with one or two hundred people at a time. The space station depicted below could be converted to a mobile transport vehicle instead of just an orbital platform. If a large booster section was attached along the center axis covered with an external skeletal frame, this booster section would also double as a barge.

Mars is at least 6 to 8 months away from Earth. You could make the entire trip to Mars in full gravity with a crew large enough to handle any problems that might arise. If you have any medical problems that need emergency action, you can afford to have 5 or 10 dedicated medical staff members along for the full trip.

This space station was originally inspired by von Braun's designs in 1952.

Adding additional rings would allow this system to accommodate crews of between 100 and 500.

Adding a rocket booster / barge section connected along the axis of the station pictured above will turn this into a fully functional system for conveying crew and cargo between the planets. The habitation rings would rotate at a rate to simulate the gravity of the destination planet.

All supplies including: Fuel, payload, personnel, will be sent into space by means of a [Space elevator] to a space dock and loaded on a shuttle waiting in low orbit.

The shuttle will transport everything to the space station waiting in geosynchronous orbit. After the shuttle has fully loaded the transport vehicle, it's job is done and will land on a parking platform in geosynchronous orbit where it will wait until the transport vehicle returns.

The steps listed above will be duplicated at both ends of the trip. One will be in orbit around Earth and the other will be in orbit around Mars.

The space station is a mobile space transport unit based on the space station designed by von Braun in the 1950's and later featured in the movie: Space Odessey 2001.

This version of space station is designed as a full transport vehicle for the voyage between Earth and Mars.

The transport vehicle will act as a space barge. The space station will be mounted on the front end of the barge and will rotate independently of the barge.

The barge section is comprised of a rocket booster in which payload modules can be mounted along it's exterior frame.

When the space station / barge is fully loaded, the transport vehicle will then be ready for the trip to Mars, while the crew of 200 will make the voyage in full gravity.

The gravitational force is controlled by the rotational speed of the von Braun section. While the ship is in interplanetary transition, the rotational speed can be adjusted to emulate the gravitational force of the destination planet you are traveling to. This will allow landing crew to be fully acclimated to the landing site...