"New Space Exploration Vision" Distributed to NASA Employees 16 Jan 2004

Mars Today ^ | January 22, 2004

[Frank_Discussion]

I posted this earlier, but yours is better than mine. Perhaps others will now join in.

I think the graphic at the front of the presentation is very good, and says a lot.

[American_Centurion]

Sorry I missed the other post.

This is interesting info for spacebugs like myself.

[Viking2002]

If we wouldn't have lost our momentum after Apollo, that image would have been reality 15 years ago.......

[Frank_Discussion]

Aye.

[Moonman62]

I wonder how much that graphic cost, and how many meetings were held to approve it.

[Frank_Discussion]

Got an idea: YOU go find out and get back to us, okee-dokee?

[Moonman62]

I wonder if I can get a government grant for doing that.

[Frank_Discussion]

Maybe if you applied under a NEA fellowship or something...

[macamadamia]

Now where does that singing black monolith figure in all of this? I hope we stay away from it...it's freaky-deaky.

[aynrandfreak]

but when do we get the new space exploration vision goggles?

[claptrap]

Hoagland is all over this. Im sure hell want everything placed in a 19.9degree orbit. The shadow government turned spirit off !

[Charles Martel]

I know that's pure "artist's conception", but it sure looks to me like someone is considering buying Soyuz components. If we're gonna get the rocket engines from Russia, I guess it makes sense to buy in bulk.

[Simmy2.5]

Just what I was thinking. Guess Spirit "saw" too much. :-P

[CasearianDaoist]

Do you think that the craft in the upper right is a Lunar Lagrange station?

[Brett66]

First unofficial concept from NASA.

[Brett66]

That seems like a reasonable guess, I wonder what that white capsule to the left is?

[Brett66]

Great, just what Hoagland needs, another conspiracy event.

[Physicist]

Here's what my plan would look like:

First and foremost, a super-heavy lift vehicle, along the lines of the Saturn V, only bigger. Call it the Saturn VI.

Second, build a new, low-tech space station along the lines of Skylab, only bigger with much better solar power. Make it so that additional, identical units could be snapped onto it (by remote control, no EVAs). Build it on Earth. Send it up to L1 (the gravitational balance point between Earth and the moon) in a single Saturn VI launch. Call it Skylab II.

Third (intermediate term), build two types of lunar lander: a low-tech crew lander similar to the Apollo LEM (except reusable), and the other a big, unmanned, single-landing cargo lander. Send three or four crew landers to Skylab II, unmanned, with one Saturn VI launch. Astronauts will go to Skylab II via Soyuz and make excursions to the moon via crew landers. Lander fuel will be resupplied by shipment from Earth. When large-scale lunar activities begin, the cargo landers will be launched from Earth by Saturn VI.

Fourth (longer term), a larger and improved Skylab unit will be launched into a Hohmann transfer orbit between the Earth and Mars. This is called the "Mars Cycler". Loaded cargo landers will be sent to rendezvous with it, along with two crew landers and lots of supplies. A section of the station will rotate to provide "gravity" for long-term crew health and comfort. Crew will be transferred to the cycler from Earth via Soyuz. Once the cycler arrives at Mars, the landers depart, and the cycler departs for an Earth flyby. On the next pass of the cycler to Mars, the crew departs via crew lander, and rides the cycler back to Earth, which swings back towards Mars (perhaps with another Mars crew).

No Space Shuttle, no useless ISS, no complicated space construction, no complicated, high-tech CEV. This should have been the manned space program in the 1980's.

[Physicist]

and rides the cycler back to Earth, which swings back towards Mars

Woah, nice dangling modifier. I mean that the cycler--and not the Earth--then swings back towards Mars. Upon arrival at Earth, the crew would leave the cycler via the Soyuz that took them there in the first place.