Human mission to Mars in 2018?

Rhys Essien

News conference on Feb 27.It will be a fly pass of the planet,no landing.It seems the money is there with multi squillionaires Dennis Tito and Elon Musk.2018 will be best time for orbit/trajectory of planets.

http://www.space.com/19901-mars-space-tourism-dennis-tito.html

http://www.universetoday.com/100144/dennis-tito-wants-to-send-human-mission-to-mars-in-2018/

InvisibleBadger

Seems to be a massive long shot if they are planning to do a 500 day mission in a refitted dragon capsule.

ZeRoY

It's great news, looking forward to that news conf.

Just Like Heaven

Kind of unbelievable. Will definitely be paying attention to the news conference.

nokia69

InvisibleBadger wrote: »

Seems to be a massive long shot if they are planning to do a 500 day mission in a refitted dragon capsule.

500 days is maddness

its possible to do a mission like this in less than half the time with solar electric propultion, and thats the way musk will do it :cool:

JupiterKid

It seems very ambitious but if it is demonstrated that it can be done safely then I'm all for it. We need some the old spirit of the Apollo "yes we can - and just go for it" back.

Of course, a Mars flyby would be much easier than a landing.

coylemj

Sounds like they beat Donald Trump to it, what a load of baloney! Bunch of egos who'll do anything to get publicity.

AugustusMinimus

coylemj wrote: »

Sounds like they beat Donald Trump to it, what a load of baloney! Bunch of egos who'll do anything to get publicity.

I couldn't care less who's ego is getting massaged as long as this mission goes ahead and is successful.

Not a chance it will actually happen sadly though

Capt'n Midnight

nokia69 wrote: »

500 days is maddness

its possible to do a mission like this in less than half the time with solar electric propultion, and thats the way musk will do it :cool:

500 days for a return trip does sound like a Hoffman transfer

wonder how much aero-braking / gravity assist could be used to head back on a quicker path ?

Then again the nice thing about a Hoffman transfer is that you will get back to earth's orbit if there is a problem (though earth will have moved on) - bit like Apollo 13


If you are going to use electric propulsion then forget about experimental stuff. Take the hit on delta-V (8,000s is pretty good) and use stuff that's been proven to be reliable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect_thruster Over 200 Hall thrusters have been flown on Soviet/Russian satellites in the past thirty years. No failures have ever occurred on orbit.


And where are the solar sails
at the worst they could be used as mirrors to boost the solar panels

666irishguy

If they pulled this off and it's a long shot they could, it will be the end of NASA as we know it. Doubt the american public and government are going to stump the bill for a manned mission when a private body can orbit it within five years of announcing a mission. If I was them I'd stick a man on the moon first. Would be a relatively easier task and would get people buzzed about space and manned landings again.

Capt'n Midnight

Ah looks like it's free return and the timing is the key.

Doable if you don't mind spending 500 days in confinement
- remember? Capricorn One :pac:

Life support will be interesting.

http://www.universetoday.com/100144/dennis-tito-wants-to-send-human-mission-to-mars-in-2018/

a crewed free-return Mars mission that would fly by Mars – no going into orbit or landing. Such a 501-day mission would launch in January 2018, “using a modified SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket,” Foust writes. “According to the paper, existing environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) technologies would allow such a spacecraft to support two people for the mission, although in Spartan condition. ‘Crew comfort is limited to survival needs only. For example, sponge baths are acceptable, with no need for showers,’ the paper states.”
...
The paper adds that if they miss this favorable 2018 opportunity, the next chance to take advantage of this lower energy trajectory would be in 2031.

But they may not adapt
http://news.discovery.com/space/mars500-crew-experiment-insomnia-health-effects-130116.htm

nokia69

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

500 days for a return trip does sound like a Hoffman transfer

wonder how much aero-braking / gravity assist could be used to head back on a quicker path ?

Then again the nice thing about a Hoffman transfer is that you will get back to earth's orbit if there is a problem (though earth will have moved on) - bit like Apollo 13


If you are going to use electric propulsion then forget about experimental stuff. Take the hit on delta-V (8,000s is pretty good) and use stuff that's been proven to be reliable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect_thruster Over 200 Hall thrusters have been flown on Soviet/Russian satellites in the past thirty years. No failures have ever occurred on orbit.


And where are the solar sails
at the worst they could be used as mirrors to boost the solar panels

yeah thats what I was thinking, Hall thrusters or something like it

but I think its a bad idea to send people on a trip that long in a capsule as small as the dragon

I would send a dragon and a bigelow BA 330

nokia69

666irishguy wrote: »

If they pulled this off and it's a long shot they could, it will be the end of NASA as we know it. Doubt the american public and government are going to stump the bill for a manned mission when a private body can orbit it within five years of announcing a mission. If I was them I'd stick a man on the moon first. Would be a relatively easier task and would get people buzzed about space and manned landings again.

true, it is a long shot

right now spaceX are the only people who could pull off a stunt like this, but since they get a large % of their cash from NASA I'm not sure if Musk wants to piss off NASA at this stage

but he might want to do it in the future

space is getting interesting again

Capt'n Midnight

nokia69 wrote: »

true, it is a long shot

will they get air miles ?

right now spaceX are the only people who could pull off a stunt like this, but since they get a large % of their cash from NASA I'm not sure if Musk wants to piss off NASA at this stage

but he might want to do it in the future

space is getting interesting again

the key is that the next alignment is 2031,

I'm assuming that's the next time you get a free-return, and that is kinda handy if you want a low risk strategy, though this means no thrusters en route.

I'm pretty sure the Russians could do it to , if they had the money. Soyuz was originally designed to go to the moon and it grew into Mir. By contrast the Space Shuttle leaked 2% of it's atmosphere per day.

Or Arthur C Clarke may be right, maybe when the Chinese build their space station it'll fire it's manoeuvring thrusters and head out to the great beyond

Capt'n Midnight

nokia69 wrote: »

yeah thats what I was thinking, Hall thrusters or something like it

but I think its a bad idea to send people on a trip that long in a capsule as small as the dragon

I would send a dragon and a bigelow BA 330

They did say modified.

But Falcon 9 Heavy will only get 53 tonnes to LEO / 12 tonnes to GEO
for Saturn V the figures are 118 to LEO and >45 to GEO

so it's going to be tight. also since LOX / RP1 they can't use a wet lab to extend volume. ( maybe the LOX tank but it would have to be vented for ages to be certain no pools of LOX left )

Rhys Essien

A good read here.

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/space/multi-millionaire-s-realistic-mars-mission-1.1477611

We will find out at 6pm this evening what exactly they are planning.