We need Planetary Spaceship X1, to Mars!!!

Everyone thinks we need to actually send people to the Marsian surface to get that MISSION ACCOMPLISH sensation. But here’s a different idea. Well, I assume it’s different. All of the scientific benefits can be accomplished, with much greater safety, with just a Mars Orbital mission.

A re-usable interplanetary spaceship can be built in earth orbit. It should be a long life project, built like a battleship, but modular so it could be upgraded with time. Ideally, some kind of continuous propulsion system is needed. This is the biggest technology hurdle at the moment. But I think some solid fuel boosters could be strapped on for the heavy orbital velocity deltas needed for leaving Earth, entering Mars orbit, departing Mars, and re-entering Earth orbit. The crew and samples would return to Earth via something like the shuttle. The ship can then be fitted for the next mission.

The spaceship should have a rotating feature where the crew spends most of the time in a simulated gravity environment.

So how would this work? I am thinking that computer and robotic technology will be 2 orders of magnitude better than it is today. When the ship gets to Mars orbit, a number of satellites are released to build a real-time communications network for the probes being sent to the surface.

These would be no ordinary surface probes. At least 2 are capable of returning samples. With these return modules are sent several other “robots” (probably more human like) and very analogous to current deep-sea ocean exploration. The crew would don virtual reality visors and experience Mars in 3D and control the movements as if they were there themselves. All of this is recorded live for broadcast back to Earth. In this one respect, it would be indistinguishable from a real manned landing. At least to us, here on Earth.

The robots could flip over rocks, hammer off chips, or do anything a man could do. The robots would then drop off the samples to the Return Module. And at the end of surface operations, the return modules would blast off and dock with the Mother ship with their precious payloads of virgin Mars material. The robots can continue exploration for as long as they last even after the humans are long gone.

I think the whole thing is much less risky for the first expedition, and achieves 100% of the scientific goals. I haven’t heard of any proposal like this. Any thoughts?

Sounds like a good idea to me. Plus, it may be a bad idea to have men on the surface if there actually are microbes on the planet.

Wow..well your stepping on a thin line here...first of all, your ideas for these 'man like' robots, a huge spaceship 'battleship' and has good enough engines to do trips back without a problem, would be EXTREMELY expensive. Now, at the moment, I doubt if NASA, or any space organization, could fund this. Maybe if funds were put together, but I doubt that would happen. Secondly, you said it would be built in space, while orbiting Earth? That would be a difficult task, and would require hundreds of builders (astronauts) and millions of dollars of new training, supplies, shuttles to transport workers and goods, and food back and forth. Very expensive. I believe price is the most difficult hurdle. If the funds were right, I'm sure NASA or any space program could put enough money into research to figure out a way to make a huge spaceship that orbits Earth. NASA is already having enough trouble getting space SHUTTLES into space, let alone a huge 'battleship-like' spaceship that would constantly orbit Earth and from which missions could be conducted...

I dunno..its iffy...

-wD

I do understand your points Webdevil! But any mission to Mars would envolve tremendous expense and effort. I think waiting until more technology develops will help out some. The main point is that that ship is a permanent vessel, built to last, "like a battleship", not necessarily as vast or heavy as one.

what it boils down to is what can be done better and more economically. let me just run this down to you...

you have a ship built here on earth, launched here on earth. moon base is a waste of time/money. they go there for six months., no contant power source. too much money and possibly could overstress the craft. no artifical gravity, rotating cabin just more money spent and one more thing that could break. they land, do everything themselves. man-like robots? hmm... just more that could break and we'd need a damn good power source. mini nuclear reactors? not very likely, what if THOSE broke? besides, if we're going to take the effort to get people in mars orbit, why the hell not send them to the surface? there's just about an equal chance of dying at either point. global mars communicatiosn satelites? yeah, that would be just more money.

basically, you have the basis for a fantastic science fiction story... but not the basis for a good research excursion.

if you take that stance you'll be waiting forever, basically. new technology is always coming out, and you could say nothing is good enough.

You can't forget that the earth shields astronauts from the suns gamma and x-rays by it's magnetic field. you leave earths orbit and start going to mars you'd be cooked by the radiation from the sun unless you had a lot of shielding on that ship which would make it heavier than it needs to be, thus needing more fuel to push it that way.

hey they used plutonium on galileo to power it.. but not for propulsion.. hrm.

well what about the moon landings then, eh? nothing seemed to affect them.

The question seems to have invoked all kinds of issues. The point is do an orbital mission first with a re-usable Interplanetary space vessel. It would be far less expensive than landing a team on the surface.

Once it is feasible to build the spaceship (and it is not now), then this scheme could be explored.

Mini-Isotope Power supplies would almost definately be used and they have been used for years on various space missions, including the 2 Viking Mars Landers in the 70's. They are VERY reliable.

Nuclear rockets have been discussed for years, I did a mission plan in college using one such design and it could get you to Mars in 30 days! But they're messy, and can only be used far away from Earth. So maybe 15-20 years from now, something will be developed.

By that time the robot and computer technology advances will boggle the mind. Have you seen the Honda walking humanoid robot? As incredible as that is, it is primative, compared to what's coming in 10 years.

What else?

well i think the idea of building a ship like this would help today u dont think ?
i mean every 1 working towards a comon goal
imagine the employment that could be created
and in the process for this ship more and better technologies would be built
those where the good points keen kid has shown the bad points
also just wonderin if u built it on the moon wouldnt that be easier?