A Skylon-based Mars mission, via Winchell Chung. Well, a man can dream... more realistically, perhaps Britain shall acquire the dubious honour of being the first country to develop and abandon an orbital launcher not once but twice ! Huzzah ! Is there nothing we can't do badly ? I suspect not.
The propulsion section has three stages: the Earth Departure Stage (EDS), the Mars Transfer Stage (MTS) and the Earth Return Stage(s) (ERS). An automated uncrewed precursor mission delivers a habitat module and power supplies to the Martian surface and establishes orbital facilities two years before the crewed mission departs. Of course the second mission only departs after all the assets perform self-checkouts and report success to Terra. The assets are not just to assist the mission, they are emergency back-up in case the crewed ship malfunctions and the crew has to shelter in place on Mars until a rescue mission arrives.
The Earth Departure Stage is designed to be reusable, so it can send off both the precursor and the primary spacecraft. It boosts the spacecraft from LEO to just short of escape velocity. It separates and allows the spacecraft to continue to Mars. The EDS is now in a highly elliptical synchronous orbit with respect to the Troy Operation Base Orbit, it uses that orbit to return. Meanwhile the Mars Transfer Stage burns to complete spacecraft insertion into Mars transfer orbit.
A three ship mission would not cost three times as much, due to the economy of scale. Two ships provides great redundancy, three ships allow up to 90% of the Martian surface to be explored. True, it would need three precursor missions instead of one, but it would be a cheaper than the Apollo missions. Apollo involved the launch of 30,000 metric tons to put 18 astronaut near Luna (12 who landed on the surface) over a period of four years.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#projecttroy
Skylons? Weren't they the bad guys in Battlestar Galactica?
ReplyDeleteA fleet of Cylons or Skylons... personally I'd settle for either. :P
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that the paper I based my article on appeared to be a thinly disguised promotion of Skylon.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, welcome our Skylon overlords articles promoting Skylon.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor Three times!
ReplyDeleteBlue Streak, Interim HoToL (it coulda worked I tell ya), Skylon.
There's a book out there "Project Cancelled" by Wood. A litany of screw-ups by the RAF and other aviation firms. Might have a PDF. Best read with hankie, glass of gin, and revolver to hand.