Using existing hardware, could a 450-day Mars flyby be carried out?
Quote from: alexSA on 10/31/2009 03:33 pmUsing existing hardware, could a 450-day Mars flyby be carried out?Yes. It wouldn't be easy or cheap. Furthermore, it would be a lot of work for just ~36-48 hours usable science time in the Mars vicinity. However, it could be done.With regard to your proposed profile, using an ISS-style transhab module would be a bad idea. The dense metal structure...
Zubrin Athena sounds good http://www.astronautix.com/craft/athena.htmEDIT: here's the link to the Athena paper itself (better than astronautix summary).http://pdf.aiaa.org/getfile.cfm?urlX=85%26%5D0%3BU%2BDN%26S7R%20CMU%24CBQ%3A%2B64K8%26%5FOGJ%0A&urla=%25%2ARH%27%21P%2C%20%0A&urlb=%21%2A%20%20%20%0A&urlc=%21%2A0%20%20%0A&urle=%27%2B%22D%22%23PJCU0%20%20%0A4*18 tons storable propellant stages, ISP 326 seconds 1* hab, 26 tons Two men crewI'm not sure Zubrin "double flyby" would work thus I would "uprate" that to Sun-Mars L1 halo orbit. Use two Jupiter 130 for fuel, plus a thrid for the hab / crew. Something like 40 tons hab plus 2*45 tons chemical propulsions stages.
Some aspects of the Athena plan are very interesting - especially the trajectory used to "shadow" Mars for about one year with several months of really short response times (<20 seconds) to Mars rovers.
Regarding using J-130, this vehicle is not available. What I liked about Zubrin's proposal is that he at least was trying to show that with currently available launch vehicles and hardware (despite his overly optimistic consumables estimates) we can do in-deep space exploration. We just need to have the will to do such precursor missions.
"6. Five additional Protons launch Briz-Ms (longer battery lives), which are docked to the DSM."This part is magic.How do the Briz-Ms connect to anything?
Quote from: Danderman on 11/20/2009 05:57 am"6. Five additional Protons launch Briz-Ms (longer battery lives), which are docked to the DSM."This part is magic.How do the Briz-Ms connect to anything?Well, normally the Briz-M has something on top of them. I assume they be modified. I personally would not use the Briz-M for such a launch, unless they are sticking to pure russian equipment in which case it is the main game in town.