I have been reading von Brauns Mars Project book these last few weeks. I find it interesting that he thought he could colonize mars with 1940s technology, using radios, telescopes and gyroscopes. His 1948 estimate of the atmospheric density on mars was way off! At least 8 times too high! And he did not know about the radiation dangers inside the Van Allen Belts, smack dab where he wanting to put his rotating 200 person inflatable donut space station. But he wanted to build a reusable 3 stage rocket, where the massive first stage would be recovered in the sea by first deploying a wire parachute from the back of the stage, and using retro-rockets in the nose of the stage, just prior to impact in the ocean. I dont know for sure if he intended to reuse the second stage, but for sure he invented a primitive form of winged shuttle vehicle for recovery of the crew. This was at least two thirds reusable rocket! And he wanted to go to the moon with it before going on to mars! (That should make Paul Spudis happy!) His first version of his space station was to be solar-thermal powered, using mirrors a thermal heat exchanger, mercury vapor and turbines. (Later he incorporated the use of nuclear power into his rockets. Once again, Paul Spudis should be pleased with that.) He preferred Earth Orbit Rendezvous at his Space Station in Low Earth Orbit, turning it into a fuel depot, and orbital construction facility for his 8 to ten ships that would take a crew of 70 people to mars on their very first expedition. He thought this was also the proper method to use to go to the moon as well. He only relented and accepted Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, and the Apollo Template that abandoned stages after one use, after the US scientists had wasted a few years arguing about it! (I hope we dont fall into that trap, but I think we already have.) Later in 1975, just before von Braun got cancer, he gave a lecture where he advocated going to Mars with just two Nuclear Thermal Rocket upper stages, and a total crew of ten or twelve, with larger chemical rocket powered landers, similar to what was used in the Apollo program. Now Robert Zimmerman and Paul Spudis do not think we are ready to go to Mars. (I hope Robert Zimmerman can explain exactly what he thinks makes us not ready to go to mars on your internet radio show with him tonight.) And Bas Lansdorp has been convinced by reading a book by a former Washington State University Environmental Scientist that we can go to Mars, but we dont have the technology to come back! And Elon Musk thinks it will take 10 to 12 years to develop his Mars Colonial Transport to get to mars with people. And Robert Zubrin believes we could have done it a decade ago, if we had only developed reusable rockets and developed automated fuel making equipment that could use mars insitu resources to make the fuel we need to come back! I think everyone is right! (At least partially.) We are not ready simply because we have decided not to do it! We decided that spending 1% of GNP on space was too much! (Even though all that money would be spent on earth providing jobs.) So we cut it back to half a percent and have accomplished a few things, but nothing as grand as going to the moon! I have looked at the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and the Falcon Heavy rocket, (which adds two extra parallel first stages that can cross feed all 27 engines at once from the side stages, and put a fully fueled Falcon 9 rocket at a ~twenty mile altitude, going faster than Mach six!) and I think we can use it to get to mars in 6 to 8 years. I think that this Falcon Heavy can CREATE and use fuel depots at LEO, GEO, the L-points, Mars C3, Mars Synchronous Orbit, and Low Mars Orbit to put two crews of four on Mars sooner than that. (I could be wrong! And it would not be the first time!) I think we should send two Falcon Heavies at a time, and they should docked with Bigelow Aerospace TransHab modules in Low Earth Orbit. I think they should go in pairs so they can be tethered together to create artificial gravity on the nine month trip out there. If they can pick up fuel and supplies at four depots along the way, they can land on mars with at least 8 to ten Astronauts in 2020, or 2022. Its really does not require any technology that we dont already have. Every one alway frets about radiation concerns, but one meter of water provides as much protection as the atmosphere of the earth. They could sleep in a 360 degree water sphere and be fine! Paul Spudis wants a 50 kW nuclear reactor. That would be great! But I dont think it is required. I would like at least three independent methods of creating electric power on the mars surface for safety reasons, but it isnt necessary that nuclear power be one of them. (And the Obama Administration is not going to approve nukes in space, although they should!) I would suggest fuel cells, solar-PV, solar-thermal, wind, and ares-thermal on mars, just to keep them happy! Paul Spudis thinks we should have the US NAVY do it. He provided the historic examples of Rickovers nuclear navy and how many national navies have conducted exploration in peace time. I was heartened to learn this week that von Braun was a Christian! I really dont think anyone is going to make it to mars and back without a tremendous amount of technical development and a lot of prayers being answered! https://t.co/CeYEaIkajq
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:23:08 +0000
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