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Solar System Busses
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. The consumables for the vehicle, such as fuel for a NEXIS-style engine, as well as transferred cargo, such as passengers and freight would be accelerated to dock with the vehicle during its next pass. The engines would keep the ship on course as the geometry of the course between Earth and Mars changes. Highly efficient and low thrusting engines, such as NEXIS engines, should be able to handle such a task. When the orbital dynamics work out such that the vehicle is going to have to follow a path that will take it back to its starting point without having reached an interesting destination, the vehicle can be abandoned, and subsequently recovered when it next returns. The basic idea here is to get the most massive parts of a spacecraft moving once, and then kept moving, while the 'disposable', lighter parts of the missions - the crew, cargo and fuel - are added at the source and removed at the destination. I'm thinking BIG here. Big enough that the biological needs of the crews are self-contained and self-sustaining. With enough shielding to avoid having to worry about significant radiation exposure. Whatever we want, because the whole thing is going to be accelerated one time, and then kept moving with clever swings past source and destination with fine-tuning of paths accomplished with efficient, low-impulse engines. Is this notion fundmentally flawed in some way? 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. Yes, I'm handwaving tons of other things, but I'm wondering if, in the most coarse view, whether this is a 'good idea'. JB |
#3
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Solar System Busses
John:
The basic idea here is to get the most massive parts of a spacecraft moving once, and then kept moving, while the 'disposable', lighter parts of the missions - the crew, cargo and fuel - are added at the source and removed at the destination. I'm thinking BIG here. Big enough that the biological needs of the crews are self-contained and self-sustaining. With enough shielding to avoid having to worry about significant radiation exposure. Whatever we want, because the whole thing is going to be accelerated one time, and then kept moving with clever swings past source and destination with fine-tuning of paths accomplished with efficient, low-impulse engines. ----- Moving out of gravity wells is the main fuel cost for both build and supply. The shear size in materials and cost to have such a vehicle manned for Mars seems wasteful. A robotic craft should move consumables and most equipment one-way only. Packing only additional sensors, communications, navigation aids, and emergency supplies continuously. The large manned systems supporting Mars exploration would be better sited on Phobos/Deimos. The exploration crews should fast transit, although a first slow manned transit could be made to set up such a base and support crew. The resources for the huge self-contained craft should be held back until we commit to manned exploration outside Mars' orbit, but would be essential in that role. Again I would keep this craft out and use robotic craft to supply it, however it would loop back for refurbishing at need. One problem will be long-term crew selection. I don't think NASA will commit to the profile necessary for distant station keeping. A loner, craftsman, artisan, and engineer is very distant from a military, PhD, social, and political personality. Doing long-term "PhDs in a can" tests seem of limited value in developing the specification(IMO). Crew profiles are better served interviewing desert prospectors and the people who solo-crew Antarctic research stations during the off-season. Any person who functions productively for years alone and is still nice to visitors. These will be the people who must host and at need rescue the exploration scientists. |
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