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Six Minutes of Terror - Landing Humans on Mars
OriginalArlen writes "Universe Today has a fascinating article discussing the difficulty of executing EDL (entry, descent, landing) on Mars for vehicles bigger than MER, Viking and Pathfinder, and the challenges for manned craft in particular. Airbags can't be used for obvious reasons, but the atmosphere is too thin to be used for parachutes or aerobraking by large heavy vehicles. The stronger gravity (compared to the moon) makes an Apollo-style powered descent impossible. The best current idea is a huge inflatable torus called a hypercone: 'Imagine a huge donut with a skin across its surface that girdles the vehicle and inflates very quickly with gas rockets (like air bags) to create a conical shape. This would inflate about 10 kilometers above the ground while the vehicle is traveling at Mach 4 or 5, after peak heating. The Hypercone would act as an aerodynamic anchor to slow the vehicle to Mach 1.'"
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
Do we really need to land heavy stuff on Mars? "Something heavy" here means some spacecraft with human creature comfort (you know, a hull, life support systems, etc... in order to keep wetware inside alive). However, there is no need for manned flight to other planets anymore: probes do a much better job more easily, at a fraction of the cost, and a probe's survivability is much less of an issue.
Probes are an extension of humanity's collective intelligence, and they bring back to humanity at least as much data as a real, flesh and bone human. So why send humans at all? Of course, if we're talking about colonizing Mars for good, there's some terraforming to do, but heavy machinery isn't necessarily required for that either, and it's not going to start within our lifetime anyway, and the planet won't be ready for us in 200 years minimum anyway.
I say forget about hauling big stuff over to Mars. The only folks who care are prez Bush, for demagogic purposes, and people who think watching a Neil Armstrong type character utter some silly piece of wisdom when setting foot on a planet is the pinnacle of human space exploration. What we need is more research into nanotechnology, so probes get smaller and lighter, and educating people.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
LOL. I was once in Aruba and I rented a one of those Ski-doo things. I revved the fucker up to 55 and went off. Then I made a turn. Well, G-Forces took over and I went flying across the ocean. Now, you'd think water was soft (I know YOU don't because of your post, but others...), but when I hit it, it felt HARD. So, I went again, and did the same thing...well, look at my user name...duh! (I live up to it, man!)Oh, the water was still fucking hard at 50+ MPH!
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
"There is no real reason to send a manned flight to Mars. None."
wrong. More in a moment.
"You would need to send enormous amounts of gear, several hundred tons of water
and food and air enough for the journey, the time spent on the planet and
the trip back. "
and
"You would need a "mother ship" and at least two 'landers' with return
capability. In addition, a habitat for the humans. If you think you are a
treehugger, imagine the colossal amounts of resources needed to get there
and the environmental impact on Earth, just to start this type of endeavor."
Because it's hard is why it should be done.
"Think people. That grey matter is supposed to be used."
You first. I mean really.
Now back to the first part...Why?
1) The resulting spin off products will create new spin off companies.(The taxes returned from the companies that sold products created from the Apollo missions had gotten 13 time the return in taxes then the Apollo cost.)
2) New technologies and RnD help drive science.
3) This would almost certianly be a global project. Big Global Projects can help bring people together.
4) The environmental research and technology would help us develop a better understanding of enviromental controls on earth.
5) So we can stick out our just chest and say "Been there, where to next?" Not to consider the emotional impact on people is foolish.
6) More experience with space flight is another step towards off world mining and colonies.
Yes, there should be robotic exploration as well.
Personal, I would send drop ships to drop supplies before humans left for mars. Complete satellite arrays, rover to scout out select landing zones. Maybe even send the returning vessel ahead. Pack it with what they will need to return, and nudge it to mars. No rush, you can send it a couple of years ahead of time. You could also send some different landing tests.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on