Who says it has to be a round trip? A one way trip would be much easier as long as needed supplies can be launched every two years.... Setup some green houses, shelters...
Quote from: kevin-rf on 10/03/2008 05:38 pmWho says it has to be a round trip? A one way trip would be much easier as long as needed supplies can be launched every two years.... Setup some green houses, shelters... Just get some 70 year old astronauts with no families so they have no worries about returning home and you're gold. This can be read as both sarcastic and seriously.
Even if somoene like Bill Gates ponied up several billion for a one way trip, would it even be legal to send them? If the theory was you kept sending supplies every 2 years or whatever, would someone be liable if the shipments failed and they died of starvation?
Who needs waivers. If the astronauts on Mars have a beef, just tell em 'Come sue me'.
Personally I'd go for a one way trip.
A one-way trip might be feasible without much resupply. Sending 2 years worth of food and water to the surface of Mars seems extremely difficult and costly, so I'm thinking a Mars mission will require a plant-based life support system. Is this correct? Some supplies would need to be shipped, but these would probably be mostly for when the plants fail and the bio system has to be rebooted.If you're already living off of what you grow, then you could stay for a long time, yes? I don't know if any government would let someone do it, but it sounds feasible. How long do small nuclear power sources last?
Actually, that's not true. A person only needs about 630g of dry food per day, so two years is 460kg, for a crew of 4 that's 1.8t. You're not going to send the ability to produce food for less than that.It's more important to be able to recycle air and water, which people require 1kg and 2.5kg per day, respectively. To bring that would weigh 2.9t and 7.3t, respectively. Equipment to recycle water/CO2 is simpler and more compact than a garden, even this does not yet fully exist but the capabilities are being developed for the ISS.
Also, how does water recycling work? How much of the 2.5kg of water intake per day comes out as urine, and how much as water vapor? Would urine recycling be enough, or would you need condensers to recycle water vapor in your habitat? Is there a place on the web that has more info on water recycling?
U.S Crewmember Water Balance kg/person-day (Ib/person-day)Drinking 1.62 (3.56)Food Water Content 1.1s (2.54)Metabolized Water 0.35 (0.76)Food Preparation 0.76 (1.67)Urine 1.5 (3.31)Sweat and Respiration 2.3 (5.o2)Fecal Water 0.08 (0.20)Total 3.88 (8.53)
Musk also understands the need for a BFR. Same as Griffin