There are many problems associated with going to Mars. The greatest of which is the shear amount of mass and fuel any mission to Mars would require. Mars Direct made a significant leap forward in advocating the use of on site propellant production. While this reduces the mass required on the outbound journey it still requires a huge amount of fuel to accelerate a spacecraft with enough size to accommodate a few humans for years.
One solution to this challenge is Buzz Aldrin's idea of using a cycler. Essentially the idea is not to use a spaceship for transferring people from Earth to Mars at all, but to use a space station. This space station would be placed in an orbit where it meets both Earth and Mars on a regular basis. Then small "taxi" spacecraft will handle the transfers to and from the surface of both planets.
The benefits of this is simple. First of all it is completely reusable. The Space Station would probably be a smaller, yet more technologically advanced version of the ISS. It would utilize the most advance life support and recycling systems. It would also use electric propulsion like VASIMR for orbital corrections. It would have significantly more shielding in order to protect against radiation. This space station would probably have have a life space of 20 to 30 year like the ISS, thus it would make the trip to and from Mars over a dozen times. This fact is important if sustainable exploration is the intention. You do not want to have to build very large spacecraft for every single mission like in Apollo.
The second benefit is the enormous decrease in fuel need to accomplish missions. If you were to accelerate a large expendable spacecraft it would require huge amounts of energy, power, and fuel. Using a cycler only space "taxis" would be needed for the journey to and from both Mars and Earth. These craft are only expected to sustain human like for a few days at most, thus they can be very small like SpaceXs Dragon. These craft would bring both astronauts and cargo up to and from the station. Since the transfer spacecraft as small they do not require super heavy lift.
Now I definitely thing that this is definitely the best way. My only concern is that NASA would not be able to establish such a station at a reasonable cost. After all it cost them 100 billion to build a station that was expected to cost less than 20. That is where the private sector comes in. If people like Bigelow and this new Russian company succeed in building commercial space station especially using Bigelow's inflatable technology than I expect they will be able to construct space stations at a fraction of the cost.
One solution to this challenge is Buzz Aldrin's idea of using a cycler. Essentially the idea is not to use a spaceship for transferring people from Earth to Mars at all, but to use a space station. This space station would be placed in an orbit where it meets both Earth and Mars on a regular basis. Then small "taxi" spacecraft will handle the transfers to and from the surface of both planets.
The benefits of this is simple. First of all it is completely reusable. The Space Station would probably be a smaller, yet more technologically advanced version of the ISS. It would utilize the most advance life support and recycling systems. It would also use electric propulsion like VASIMR for orbital corrections. It would have significantly more shielding in order to protect against radiation. This space station would probably have have a life space of 20 to 30 year like the ISS, thus it would make the trip to and from Mars over a dozen times. This fact is important if sustainable exploration is the intention. You do not want to have to build very large spacecraft for every single mission like in Apollo.
The second benefit is the enormous decrease in fuel need to accomplish missions. If you were to accelerate a large expendable spacecraft it would require huge amounts of energy, power, and fuel. Using a cycler only space "taxis" would be needed for the journey to and from both Mars and Earth. These craft are only expected to sustain human like for a few days at most, thus they can be very small like SpaceXs Dragon. These craft would bring both astronauts and cargo up to and from the station. Since the transfer spacecraft as small they do not require super heavy lift.
Now I definitely thing that this is definitely the best way. My only concern is that NASA would not be able to establish such a station at a reasonable cost. After all it cost them 100 billion to build a station that was expected to cost less than 20. That is where the private sector comes in. If people like Bigelow and this new Russian company succeed in building commercial space station especially using Bigelow's inflatable technology than I expect they will be able to construct space stations at a fraction of the cost.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram