Author Topic: Modelling Mars  (Read 221412 times)

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #460 on: 03/30/2016 03:27 pm »
It was time.
She said, “I’ll step off the footpad now.”
She held on to the ladder with her right hand and leaned out to the left. She raised her left boot over the lip of the footpad, pushed it out a little way, and — silently, carefully — lowered it to the dust.
Nobody spoke; Stone, Gershon, remote Earth. It was as if the whole of creation was focused on her, on this moment.
She tested her weight, bouncing on her left boot in the gentle gravity. The Martian regolith was firm enough to hold her. As she had known it would be.
She was standing with one foot on this clumsy artifact from Earth, the other on the virgin terrain of Mangala. She looked around, briefly, at the empty landscape, framed by the rounded rim of her faceplate, and she could see the play of soft ocher light over her nose and cheeks, the flesh of a human face, here on Mars.
Holding on to the ladder, she placed her right foot on the ground. Then, cautiously, she let go of the ladder. She was standing freely on Mars.

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #461 on: 03/30/2016 03:29 pm »
“…Natalie?”
She hadn’t said anything, she realized.
She turned to Challenger. The human artifact was a squat, white-painted toy, diminished by the distance she had come; the sun made the sky glow behind it. She could still see the pearl-gray interior of the airlock, embedded at the center of the MEM, and above that she could make out the fat cylinder of the ascent stage, with its propellant tanks clustered like berries around a stalk.
There was a single set of footsteps, crisp in the duricrust, leading from Challenger to where she stood, beyond the circular splash of dust from the MEM’s landing rocket. They looked like the first steps on a beach after a receded tide; they were the only footsteps on the planet.
By God, she thought, we’re here. We came for all the wrong reasons, and by all the wrong methods, but we’re here, and that’s all that matters. And we’ve found soil, and sunlight, and air, and water.
She said: “I’m home.”

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #462 on: 03/30/2016 03:31 pm »
And that, is the end of the book.   But not the coverage of the mission.  I have more photos prepared all the way to splashdown in November.

Offline Archibald

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #463 on: 03/30/2016 04:27 pm »
November 6, 1986 !

I did a quick search on Wikipedia and it confirmed my doubts that OTL November 1986 was not different from the year as whole - shitty, gritty, and scarying.

Quote
November 3

 Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been selling weapons to Iran in secret, in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
 

November 4 – Democrats regain control of the United States Senate for the first time in 6 years.

Bad times for Reagan it seems. The return of the Mars crew will be a welcome distraction  :)

« Last Edit: 03/30/2016 04:28 pm by Archibald »
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #464 on: 04/09/2016 03:35 pm »
I have worked at this one for a while.  After a few days of EVAs, the crew has set up a AMSEP(Ares Mars Surface Experiment Package) and deployed robotic rovers.  Also, a rover for the crew has been deployed.  Each EVA was only 4 hours.  The robot came in handy for exploration, since it could be done by the crew from inside Challenger.

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #465 on: 04/10/2016 02:02 am »
Cover of Time magazine showing York on Mars.

Offline mike robel

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #466 on: 04/10/2016 12:50 pm »
Good stuff Ron

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #467 on: 04/21/2016 12:01 am »
After 3 weeks on the surface of Mars, the crew of the Challenger is 3 days from lifting off to return to their orbiting spacecraft. 

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #468 on: 04/23/2016 03:11 am »
High above the surface of Mars, the currently unmanned Ares spacecraft awaits the return of it's crew.

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #469 on: 04/23/2016 03:13 am »
April 23, 1986: After nearly a month on the surface of Mars, Stone, Gershon and York lift off in Challenger's ascent stage.  This still is from the Crew Rover's TV camera.  The rover's tracks to it's parking spot can be seen on the surface.
« Last Edit: 04/23/2016 03:15 am by Ronpur50 »

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #470 on: 04/23/2016 03:18 am »
After reaching orbit, Challenger docks with Endeavour, it's fuel tanks depleted and discarded.  The crew returns to the mission module and begins to transfer samples to storage for the return home.  They will the begin to prepare Ares for Trans-Earth Injection.
« Last Edit: 04/23/2016 03:21 am by Ronpur50 »

Offline mike robel

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #471 on: 04/23/2016 04:30 pm »
Nice stuff Ron.

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #472 on: 04/23/2016 10:30 pm »
Today the crew rearranged the spacecraft, first by jettisoning Challenger and then undocking Discovery.  The Endeavour undocked and does it's flip again so Discovery can dock at the nose, getting Ares ready for departure!

Ares then fires the four engines of the MS-II for the last time to begin the TEI burn.

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #473 on: 04/23/2016 10:31 pm »
After the remaining fuel in the MS-II stage is used up, it is discarded and the MS-IVB stage fires for the first time.  Ares has begun it's return to Earth!

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #474 on: 08/19/2016 12:51 pm »
Only a few months until Ares returned to Earth.  None of this is covered by the Voyage novel.  But, we have wondered how things would have gone.  Would there be problems with the spacecraft?  Illness with the crew?  I often wonder, giving the way Baxter wrote, would he have had them die before returning home?  LOL.

For my version of events, post Ares, a failure of the solar arrays on Endeavour force the crew to only draw power from the MS-IVB stage.  Putting the ship in low power mode, something that was planned for.  Science that was planned for the return flight gets cancelled, and worries about the J-2 engine have the crew prepare for a direct descent, a very risky plan.  Instead of entering high Earth orbit with the entire vehicle, they separate in the CSM and re-enter directly.  This would mean that the Ares would continue on past Earth, and no mission to retrieve the bulk of the Mars samples would occur.  Can the crew make it home safe?

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #475 on: 08/19/2016 12:55 pm »
There has been interest eleswhere in having an embroidered version of the Ares patch made.  I, as of yet, have no idea how much they would cost.  Is there any interest from anybody here of purchasing a patch?

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #476 on: 08/23/2016 08:29 am »
Potentially, yes. 
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #477 on: 08/23/2016 10:44 am »
I have two patch artist that are interested in seeing it made.  They know how to make patches, and have ideas on changes.

Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #478 on: 08/24/2016 04:23 am »
Since it's a landing, perhaps the MEM in the corner
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline Archibald

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Re: Modelling Mars
« Reply #479 on: 08/24/2016 06:14 am »
I'm very tempted to buy one...
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

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