NASA manned Mars mission details emerge

The Monkey

The Monkey

The Freeman
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
16,316
Reaction score
16
A 400,000kg (880,000lb) Marship would be assembled in orbit using the Ares V cargo launch vehicle for a 900-day mission to the red planet, according to details that have emerged about NASA's new Constellation programme's manned Mars mission.

The spacecraft would take a "minimal crew" to Mars in six to seven months, with the crew spending up to 550 days on the surface, according to the programme's design reference architecture 5.0, currently in development.

Each of the three to four Ares V rockets used to launch the Marship elements into low Earth orbit would need a 125,000kg payload capacity and use a 10m (32.7ft) fairing.

Crews would be sent every 26 months, will need up to 50,000kg of cargo, use an aerodynamic and powered descent method and the 40min communications delay between Earth and Mars would require autonomy or at least asynchronous operation with mission control.

Notionally launched in February 2031, the first crew's flight would be preceded by the cargo lander and surface habitat being sent in December 2028 and January 2029, respectively using two Ares V launches.

The lander will arrive around October 2029 and the habitat November the same year. Nuclear power is the preferred surface energy source. The crew will arrive in August 2031.

A second mission's habitat and lander will be launched by two Ares Vs in late 2030/early 2031 to reach Mars at the same time as the first crew. In the first quarter of 2033, the second mission's crew will leave Earth to arrive at Mars by December, while the first crew leaves Mars in January 2033 after a 17-month stay, to reach Earth by September.

The details were included in a presentation at "Enabling Exploration: The Lunar Outpost and Beyond", the October meeting of NASA's Lunar exploration analysis group.

It also states, "Conjunction class missions (long-stay) [have] fast inter-planetary transits. Successive missions provide functional overlap of mission assets," referring to the presence of a following mission's habitat and cargo lander being on Mars when its preceding mission's crew are there already.
Click to expand...

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/11/26/219877/nasa-manned-mars-mission-details-emerge.html

This is just so ****ing sweet. Thank God I will (hopefully) be alive when this happens.
 
Twenty-two years? But I want it nooooooooooooooooooooow. ;(
 
Darkside55 said:
Twenty-two years? But I want it nooooooooooooooooooooow. ;(
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.At this rate we'll colonise the solar system in maybe, I don't know, 500 YEARS!! :frown:

And quite frankly I don't care about Mars, build that damn lunar base, start space tourism already for **** sake!

"NASA, slowing down aerospace technology for a better tomorrow!!111"
 
Did anyone watch that five part flight to Mars series that just aired on Discovery? So interesting, answers just about any question you could think of regarding a mission to mars
 
they'll just fake it like the last one

Darkside55 said:
Twenty-two years? But I want it nooooooooooooooooooooow. ;(
Click to expand...

well if it goes wrong theres no rescue plan.

although I'd admit dying on Mars and being remembered forever sounds a hell of a lot more fun than dying on earth unsung and unremembered to me AND my corpse will become one awesome tourist stop for future astronauts as well.
 
Wow, they picked exactly the same mission plan we came up with when I was interning at NASA.

It sounds about right. What you have to realize is that Mars launch windows come only every few years, because otherwise you'd be spending much longer in space, succumbing to more radiation and weightlessness, and spending much more money and oxygen.

The other launch windows up to 2031 are being used up by robotic and other scientific missions, and the cargo ship. Every launch costs a ton of money for NASA to pull off, and we have alot of launches to do before we will be prepared for a Mars mission. For instance, the space station needs to be completed, we'd like to have a lunar base (which should happen in the 2020s), and we need cargo on Mars so that the astronauts can survive for the 550 days they'd be on the surface.

Once we get the VASMIR plasma engine and possibly photonic engines on the spacecraft, however, Mars travel will be much much easier and we can start sending astronauts on a more regular basis. This 2031 mission will be the equivalent of the first lunar missions, we're doing it just because "we can". We have no hope of permanently colonizing the planet without the plasma engine cutting down travel times from six months to 30 days.
 
'I made the calculations in feet, and programmed the lander in metres. 50 billion dollar WOOPSIE!'

Good old NASA
 
I have a hard time getting excited about something that far off :frown:
 
so we have about 22 years before an alien race will wipe out mankind because we entered their property. ****ing NASA thanks a lot in advance.
 
The Monkey said:
That actually happened?
Click to expand...

Yes. One of the mars probes had an input of feet for orbit height, but the NASA controllers assumed it was programmed in meters, so they entered the orbit height value in meters, causing the probe to burn up in the atmosphere.
 
Wow....NASA releasing an apparent plan, with nothing having been done yet.

Yeah um, thats really....really not reliable TBH.

I'll believe it when I see it, otherwise, just NASA bs.



Though, just so everyones clear, I would ****ing go bat shit insane excited if we started putting bases in places. (rhythm, lol).
 
I saw a documentary called Science Channel: The Mars Underground or something where they talked about a trick exactly like this. You guys should check it out if you want more in-depth info on how they gonna do it.
 
none of this matters untill they develop a portable railgun for the average joe
 
to hell whit it I will go there by myself, I just need 3 volunters and a lot of cord
 
Woulnd't an international mars mission be easier? Hell, lets build an international moon base instead. It'll work out fine, just look at the ISS!

D:
 
Atomic_Piggy said:
Woulnd't an international mars mission be easier? Hell, lets build an international moon base instead. It'll work out fine, just look at the ISS!

D:
Click to expand...

Well, it IS the first time we've ever done that. There's alot of stuff we have to work out.
 
theotherguy said:
Yes. One of the mars probes had an input of feet for orbit height, but the NASA controllers assumed it was programmed in meters, so they entered the orbit height value in meters, causing the probe to burn up in the atmosphere.
Click to expand...

I thought all scientific calculations was performed in metric, so how the hell did they screw up there.

But apparently Dr Michio Kaku said that nano fabricators will be available in about 20 years, so I suppose materials won't be a problem. Hell they might be able to develop a proper capsule made of material to protect against radiation
 
Meanwhile, mankind develops subspace warpdrives and the ability to fly to Mars within an hour is created. A new team of space pilots are again sent off to explore the red planet.

The astronauts are picked up on the way.
 
A while back i saw some sort of concept drawings for a lift to the moon...god these 'geniouses' arent so smart.

What scares me most is our lack of technology. Its gonna take like a third of an astronauts life to get to mars...THATS RIDICULOUSLY LONG.

And warpdrives etc, anyone wonder if theyre possible or just sci-fi imagination?

And yeah, by the time they get 3/4 of the way, our latest space ship will shoot past and cause their little coke can to fall apart in its wake.
 
ĐynastҰ said:
A while back i saw some sort of concept drawings for a lift to the moon...god these 'geniouses' arent so smart.

What scares me most is our lack of technology. Its gonna take like a third of an astronauts life to get to mars...THATS RIDICULOUSLY LONG.

And warpdrives etc, anyone wonder if theyre possible or just sci-fi imagination?

And yeah, by the time they get 3/4 of the way, our latest space ship will shoot past and cause their little coke can to fall apart in its wake.
Click to expand...

Anything's possible. While it itself my be silly, but the concept behind it, ie. travelling faster than the speed of light might somehow be possible. It's just a matter of figuring out how to do it. Several sci fi movies have gone different ways of doing it. And the science behind it might have some truth.
 
ĐynastҰ said:
A while back i saw some sort of concept drawings for a lift to the moon...god these 'geniouses' arent so smart.

What scares me most is our lack of technology. Its gonna take like a third of an astronauts life to get to mars...THATS RIDICULOUSLY LONG.

And warpdrives etc, anyone wonder if theyre possible or just sci-fi imagination?

And yeah, by the time they get 3/4 of the way, our latest space ship will shoot past and cause their little coke can to fall apart in its wake.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? It would take 6-8 months for a modern rocket to travel to Mars. It'll only take about 1/120th of their life to get to Mars.
 
Okay i misread the years expected for landing etc
 
Omg. But, can we at least send men to the moon again for once before we do this? Seriously...
 
soulslicer said:
Omg. But, can we at least send men to the moon again for once before we do this? Seriously...
Click to expand...

Wth're you talking about?? Men on the moon?? Are you crazy?!!?

Stop watching so much TV!
 
TBH, the only way I can see us breaching the speed of light are through wormholes (which aren't technically traveling faster than light, rather they're like doorways across space - you still enter slower than light) and they're still contrversioal with physicists.
And of course, we have to the take the millenia spanning journey across space to get the wormholes there in the first place.
 
2031 is incredibly optimistic for a mars mission, unless Nasa gets a massive budget boost it's simply not going to happen. The first moon mission is scheduled for the early 2020's. A moon base would be built sometime up to 2025. This means that between the completion of the moon base and the first mars mission there's 6 years. It's impossible to run a moon program AND a mars program at the same time. One has to go: either the recently constructed moon base or the enormously expensive mars mission.

Of course none of this is going to happen. As soon as Bush is out of office the VSE and Nasa's manned spaceflight will be among the first to get budget cuts. Obama recently proposed to cut money to Moon-Mars projects to finance education reforms. It doesn't matter who's in office after Bush, Nasa is screwed anyway.
 
Where's my "Visit the moon for a day" coupon?
 
2031 is incredibly optimistic for a mars mission, unless Nasa gets a massive budget boost it's simply not going to happen. The first moon mission is scheduled for the early 2020's. A moon base would be built sometime up to 2025. This means that between the completion of the moon base and the first mars mission there's 6 years. It's impossible to run a moon program AND a mars program at the same time. One has to go: either the recently constructed moon base or the enormously expensive mars mission.

Of course none of this is going to happen. As soon as Bush is out of office the VSE and Nasa's manned spaceflight will be among the first to get budget cuts. Obama recently proposed to cut money to Moon-Mars projects to finance education reforms. It doesn't matter who's in office after Bush, Nasa is screwed anyway.
Reply With Quote
Click to expand...

Indeed, unfortunately people are stuck in the irrational logical cycle that we gotta fix our shit down here before we go up there.

1) Impossible

2) All our eggs in one basket isn't gonna go the species as a whole much good.


I say we go for the moon base myself. Mars is nice, but its far away, the moon is right over there though, just a relatively quick hop and bingo, were sailors on the moon.
 
The Monkey said:
You think they faked the moon landing?
Click to expand...

No

I have yet to see any convincing (i.e., scientifically credible) argument that the moon landings were fake, i.e., an argument that doesn't have a far more plausible and scientific refutation.

I could conceive that NASA mucked up once and had to fake the first moon landing. That is believable. If you do the same thing 6 times (7 if you count Apollo 13) then you're 6 (or 7) times more likely to get caught out. In any case, we'll see soon enough, as there are a load of unmanned probes heading back to the moon, and there'll be something that can take clear pictures pretty soon.
 
Nasa didn't fake the moon landing. Anyone who thinks they did needs to be raped, beaten senseless and thrown into some horseshit.
 
Yeah, sorry, forgot there was wind in space *slaps forehead*
 
ĐynastҰ said:
Yeah, sorry, forgot there was wind in space *slaps forehead*
Click to expand...

If you're thinking about the apparent wind "blowing" the flag, I think you should do that again. Apparently, NASA treated the flag so it would be stiff, thus sticking out for photogenic-effect.
 
It would be easier to launch a mars mission from the moon as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Marc Laidlaw releases Half-Life 2: Episode Three's plot
Replies
32
Views
39K
BabyHeadCrab
BabyHeadCrab
Omnomnick
Steam Client Bug Displays Random User Details
Replies
8
Views
18K
Boff
Boff
B
Community Interviews: Tony Newton, co-creator of Redemption
Replies
0
Views
5K
Barnz
B
Krynn72
Elite: Dangerous
Replies
1
Views
1K
Vegeta897
Vegeta897
Back
Top