NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
General Discussion => Q&A Section => Topic started by: crickmaster on 05/03/2013 07:28 am
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There are lots of papers that talk about getting to Mars in approximately 39 days using VASIMR. I understand that the required technology to do that has not quite been developed yet.
Say if the technology had been developed, and was available, how are the travel time/trajectory and launch opportunities determined? Are there any papers/books that go through the procedures, or any equations of how that ballpark estimate of 39 days is calculated?
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There are lots of papers that talk about getting to Mars in approximately 39 days using VASIMR. I understand that the required technology to do that has not quite been developed yet.
Say if the technology had been developed, and was available, how are the travel time/trajectory and launch opportunities determined? Are there any papers/books that go through the procedures, or any equations of how that ballpark estimate of 39 days is calculated?
"Propulsion requirements for controllable satellites" by Edelbaum is where you want to start. It's only for circular, constant acceleration problems but it's closed form analytical, and algebraic, so it's pretty easy math.
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I'm pretty sure you need a massive power source to make it to Mars in 39 days with VASIMR. I don't know if they took this into account in the calculation.
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There are lots of papers that talk about getting to Mars in approximately 39 days using VASIMR. I understand that the required technology to do that has not quite been developed yet.
Say if the technology had been developed, and was available, how are the travel time/trajectory and launch opportunities determined? Are there any papers/books that go through the procedures, or any equations of how that ballpark estimate of 39 days is calculated?
This was talked about this in an earlier NSF thread (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=1139.msg600043#msg600043).
Summary: Chang-Diaz assumes a power source that cranks out 2 kilowatts electricity per kilogram. Which is called a magic power source.
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Ok, say if we had the technology to give us 0.5kg/kw and the 200MW reactor. How is the 39 day figure obtained? And what trajectory is used to get this 39 day figure?
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I did a few Speed=Distance/Time calculations and discovered if we used VASIMIR we could get to Pluto in as little as three years :O
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Summary: Chang-Diaz assumes a power source that cranks out 2 kilowatts electricity per kilogram. Which is called a magic power source.
Actually the problem statement is a little more involved than that, as even simple batteries give you that kind of specific power. Doing it for 39 days is the issue