inspirationmarsfoundation.org and .com were registered .. today .. by a norwegian fellow. Member of Mars expedition or fast domain name entrepreneurship?
Quote from: Ben the Space Brit on 02/21/2013 10:28 am* Bigelow hab module;* Hydrolox kick stage (maybe a dual-engine Centaur as per Golden Spike's idea);* SEP sustainer;* Remote assembly at EML-2;* CST-100 or Dragon CRV, launched to EML-2 by Falcon Heavy.... it's their lives and money to risk.Can Tito afford even one item from that list? Rich man but IIRC not a billionaire.
* Bigelow hab module;* Hydrolox kick stage (maybe a dual-engine Centaur as per Golden Spike's idea);* SEP sustainer;* Remote assembly at EML-2;* CST-100 or Dragon CRV, launched to EML-2 by Falcon Heavy.... it's their lives and money to risk.
May I ask one of our gurus here to make some calculations how a voyage of 501 days looks like with a start in 2018? Fly-by? Mars orbit? Anything else?
Sure it's dangerous. But come on, what isn't? Now don't jump on me as being insensitive but lets get real. Last year in the US alone over 32000 people died just commuting in their autos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year). That’s about 90 people per day.
Quote from: apace on 02/21/2013 10:00 amMay I ask one of our gurus here to make some calculations how a voyage of 501 days looks like with a start in 2018? Fly-by? Mars orbit? Anything else?There's what looks to be a relevant set of tables at http://clowder.net/hop/railroad/sched.html but I haven't looked at them closely yet.
As I've mentioned to a few people offline, there's going to be an IEEE paper discussing the mission that will be presented in about two weeks at their aerospace conference. Jeff Foust was able to dig that out and get a copy, and provides some details here:http://www.newspacejournal.com/2013/02/21/new-insights-on-that-private-crewed-mars-mission/Key points (that I feel ok sharing since Jeff made them public):* Two person mission* Free-return trajectory that flies by Mars* Launched on a Falcon Heavy* Modified Dragon spacecraft* Privately funded, but leveraging NASA expertise in a few key technical areas (TPS and ECLSS)While I'm not a manned spacecraft guru by any stretch of the imagination, my read of the paper left me feeling pretty confident that the idea was technically feasible (ambitious? yes. balsy? yes. aggressive mass targets? yes. achievable? probably.)~Jon
No habitat module?
Looks possible, and only just /slightly/ outside of current long-duration spaceflight experience (current max is 438 days, and the cosmonaut was still able to walk afterwards).
Quote from: daj24 on 02/21/2013 01:39 pm Sure it's dangerous. But come on, what isn't? Now don't jump on me as being insensitive but lets get real. Last year in the US alone over 32000 people died just commuting in their autos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year). That’s about 90 people per day. This is a lousy way to make an argument. Yeah, maybe 90 people per day die in auto accidents, but what is the death rate per journey? If somebody told you that there was a 50% chance that you would be killed every time you got behind the wheel of your car would you ever drive? At what point is that accident rate low enough for you to do it? Would you do it if there was only a 1% fatality rate? (Work it out in your head. You'll realize that even at 1%, there's a pretty good chance you'll be dead in a few years.)You're making an absolutist comparison when a relative comparison is called for.
I guess it's doable but the lack of room for exercise equipment will probably mean an unpleasant return to gravity.
...Quote from: Robotbeat on 02/21/2013 02:31 pmLooks possible, and only just /slightly/ outside of current long-duration spaceflight experience (current max is 438 days, and the cosmonaut was still able to walk afterwards). Robot, don't forget that was a Mir mission. That means a much larger living space and exercise equipment to stop muscle and bone degeneration. I'm sure a little mitigation can be achieved by use of medicines and food supplements but the very tight mass budget will make it difficult to do as much as I'm sure most space medical experts would be happy with. ...
Quote from: Ben the Space Brit on 02/21/2013 02:39 pm...Quote from: Robotbeat on 02/21/2013 02:31 pmLooks possible, and only just /slightly/ outside of current long-duration spaceflight experience (current max is 438 days, and the cosmonaut was still able to walk afterwards). Robot, don't forget that was a Mir mission. That means a much larger living space and exercise equipment to stop muscle and bone degeneration. I'm sure a little mitigation can be achieved by use of medicines and food supplements but the very tight mass budget will make it difficult to do as much as I'm sure most space medical experts would be happy with. ...The Mir guys just had an exercise bike and resistive/compressive garments, could easily fit in a Dragon. I don't believe they had the resistance training or treadmill of ISS.