(John Buehler) writes:

Getting massive objects moving seems to be one of the biggest
challenges that we face with exploration of the solar system. With
manned missions, the paraphernalia that processes the environment to
make it habitable contributes quite a bit of extra mass to a vehicle.

My Bright Idea:

Get the reusable mass of a spacecraft moving and keep it moving
between two or more destinations.

For example, a vehicle that travels between Earth and Mars could be as
massive as desired, continually travelling between the two planets.

Is this notion fundmentally flawed in some way?

No. What you are describing is a "cycler".

Googling for earth mars cycler will turn up lots of matches.

From http://www.marsinstitute.info/rd/fac...rtr/in07.html:

Versatile International Station for Interplanetary Transport
(VISIT) cyclers were developed by Niehoff and his SAIC colleagues
in 1985. A VISIT cycler orbits the Sun four times while Earth
orbits five times and three times while Mars orbits two
times. This means that it encounters Earth every 5 years and Mars
every 3.75 years. A VISIT cycler launched from Earth on April 30,
2001, encounters Mars on November 1, 2001, then flies past Earth
again on April 16, 2006. After 20 years (five Mars and five Earth
encounters) the VISIT cycler's orbit must be "re-tuned" using
rockets. Niehoff envisions establishing a "network" of three or
more VISIT cyclers to permit frequent transfers.


My biggest assumptions a

1. Transit systems (power plant, engines, shielding, life-support,
various electronics) is the largest portion of the vehicle mass.

2. Human consumables can be preserved in the vehicle through recovery
and recycling.

2. A vehicle can be continuously looped between destinations in the
solar system that are both interesting and practical to reach.
Perhaps not always the same two destinations for a given vehicle. I
assume that the transit time between Earth and Mars (for example) will
be excessive during certain periods.

3. Engines such as NEXIS can be used to tweak orbital trajectories
where simple passes of massive bodies (planets, moons, etc) cannot do
the whole job.

Heck, by the time we are ready to have regular two-way traffic with a
Mars base we probably will also have even better and bigger propulsion
systems. So why not capture a few smallish NEOs, hollow them out, fit
a nuclear reactor, engines, life support etc, and then put them into
cycler orbits?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

--
Manfred Bartz