Dr Robert Zubrin has argued for years that a Human mission to Mars is possible without getting mission funding. One of his proposals in 1996 was an Icebreaker mission. A low cost mission that would demonstrate to NASA that long duration human interplanetary spaceflight is doable. For this he proposed the Athena Manned Mars Flyby or the Giasheild Asteroid mission. Still NASA has no plans of doing this either. Thats when I got thinking. What if a private organization were organized for conducting an Icebreaker type mission to spur NASA into doing a Human Mars mission (or moon mission, or something).Here's what I have in mindA Falcon heavy can sends an Upper-stage with the required fuel to send the crew to the trajectory. Then a Falcon 9 send the dragon with the consumables, crew and supplies. The 2 dock and the upper stage is fired. If the destination is Mars then we could use the same trajectory as the Athena mission with it in Mars vicinity for around 1 year. 17 tonnes could be sent on this trajectory. Since the Dragon is only 4.2 tonnes this should leave enough to provide the crew with a inflatable Hab (witch Zubrin estimates could have a mass of just 200 kg) and all the supplies needed. The cost should be within a private organization.Falcon Heavy: $80 millionFalcon 9/Dragon: $150 millionOperations cost: $100 millionUpper-stage, food space suits, supplies ect:$50 millionTotal:$380 millionElon musk or any other major investor could easily fund this.
Quote from: SpaceGeek123 on 04/01/2012 08:53 pmDr Robert Zubrin has argued for years that a Human mission to Mars is possible without getting mission funding. One of his proposals in 1996 was an Icebreaker mission. A low cost mission that would demonstrate to NASA that long duration human interplanetary spaceflight is doable. For this he proposed the Athena Manned Mars Flyby or the Giasheild Asteroid mission. Still NASA has no plans of doing this either. Thats when I got thinking. What if a private organization were organized for conducting an Icebreaker type mission to spur NASA into doing a Human Mars mission (or moon mission, or something).Here's what I have in mindA Falcon heavy can sends an Upper-stage with the required fuel to send the crew to the trajectory. Then a Falcon 9 send the dragon with the consumables, crew and supplies. The 2 dock and the upper stage is fired. If the destination is Mars then we could use the same trajectory as the Athena mission with it in Mars vicinity for around 1 year. 17 tonnes could be sent on this trajectory. Since the Dragon is only 4.2 tonnes this should leave enough to provide the crew with a inflatable Hab (witch Zubrin estimates could have a mass of just 200 kg) and all the supplies needed. The cost should be within a private organization.Falcon Heavy: $80 millionFalcon 9/Dragon: $150 millionOperations cost: $100 millionUpper-stage, food space suits, supplies ect:$50 millionTotal:$380 millionElon musk or any other major investor could easily fund this.Double it to get the real costs
As for the Mission I say the most productive mission options go as follows. Either you spend 1 year in Mars Vicinity like in the Athena mission (using 2 flybys of Mars) or you spend a short time in Mars vicinity and a Venus flyby like in the triple planet Flyby mission proposal from the 1970s (2 mars flybys and 1 venus flyby).
To maximize useable hardware for later missions I suggest you could discard your Hab you were living in and leave it in a Cycling orbit
A Falcon Second Stage would never make it to Mars with sufficient O2 to make an Earth Return burn.
Quote from: ChefPat on 04/01/2012 10:02 pmA Falcon Second Stage would never make it to Mars with sufficient O2 to make an Earth Return burn.Because of boil-off?
