Thursday, February 28, 2013

Highlighting the missing ingredient

I have posted somewhere that the only missing ingredient to a mars colonization mission is the lander. One great thing about the Inspiration Mars mission is that it will highlight this missing ingredient. It's a difficult challenge, but SpaceX has taken the lead with it's Mars One lander designed to land 2.5 mt on mars with up to four crew.

Since we're talking about the Inspiration Mars mission and landers, here's a thought... Include an addition Mars One Lander to provide redundancy and land those supplies on mars during the flyby? Or would that be too much of a temptation?

Update: Feasibility Analysis. Comparing it with my ref mission:
  • 12 m3 of private space for each (and 400+ m3 of common space which includes space suit storage.) vs. Less than 7 m3 shared by two (but without bulky space suits and storage for same.)
  • 2.5 mt per person (includes self, food and supplies for after landing) for 240+ days vs just food 2.7 mt hydrated (682 kg per person, freeze dried) for 501 days.
  • Never comes close to venus orbit vs. does.
Moving the goal posts...

A lot of people will say this can't be done and the crew will die. Of course, if they do, this does not prove their assertion. Others will go straight to the second of Clarke's law. It can be done but it's not worth doing. Then, once we have colonists on mars with a thriving community they will move on to the third step...

"We knew it all along."

The challenge of this mission is funding. It appears, and Tito agrees, there is no likelihood of profit. The good news is there is plenty of profit for colonization if they embrace it.

If they do, the solar system will be filled in little time and history will record this as the actual beginning of the SPACE AGE.

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