Post by TaeKwonDan on Jul 21, 2005 10:24:36 GMT -4
I was on another message board (actually a sports related board, but they have a general section) and disappointment with the shuttle launch delay came up and some folks were expressing displeasure with NASA and wondering why we were able to go to the moon 30+ years ago, but not to Mars yet.
Let me first say that these are not woo-woo's as one of the folks remembered watching Apollo and just wondered what happened to the space program in the interim. Myself and another poster who works for NASA basically caught him up on the political changes in the space program and why we went on a different tact than Apollo. (It's a board for Georgia Tech atheletics so there are just a few engineers over there.)
Anyway, I was thinking and trying to point out the differences between going to the moon and to Mars. And thought it might be a fun mental exercise for us over here as well. Here were my thoughts as to some of the challenges that would need to be overcome:
1. Storage of food and water on ship that would be in space for ~12 months (roundtrip.)
2. Helping a human to cope with being in a near 0 G environment for that period of time.
3. (not certain on this one) Protecting the ship passengers from the increased likey hood of large solar flare incidences. I'm not certain, because at the distance we're talking I don't know how dangerous a solar flare truly is to an astronaut.
4. (also not certain on this one) Protecting the ship from the increased likelyhood of contact with space debris.
5. Landing on and taking off from Mars is a very different ball game than landing and taking off from the Moon.
-Mars has an atmosphere making the efficient design of the LM most likely inadequate.
-The moon has 1/6th gravity of the Earth while Mars has roughly 1/3 the gravity. This changes the rocketry problem in terms of reaching escape velocity significantly especially when coupled with drag from the atmosphere.
6. The program could not and should not move as quickly as Apollo did from a logistics stand point. Missions where we just prove we can get a person there and back would take a year in comparison to the 6 days lunar orbit on Apollo 8 took.
Now, these are not reasons we'll never go and I think it's a noble and exciting cause. I was just having fun thinking about the larger hurdles necessary to put a person on Mars. I'm sure I missed a bunch so what else is there that you guys can think of? And of course feel free to tell me why some of the things I listed aren't really that much of an obstacle.
Let me first say that these are not woo-woo's as one of the folks remembered watching Apollo and just wondered what happened to the space program in the interim. Myself and another poster who works for NASA basically caught him up on the political changes in the space program and why we went on a different tact than Apollo. (It's a board for Georgia Tech atheletics so there are just a few engineers over there.)
Anyway, I was thinking and trying to point out the differences between going to the moon and to Mars. And thought it might be a fun mental exercise for us over here as well. Here were my thoughts as to some of the challenges that would need to be overcome:
1. Storage of food and water on ship that would be in space for ~12 months (roundtrip.)
2. Helping a human to cope with being in a near 0 G environment for that period of time.
3. (not certain on this one) Protecting the ship passengers from the increased likey hood of large solar flare incidences. I'm not certain, because at the distance we're talking I don't know how dangerous a solar flare truly is to an astronaut.
4. (also not certain on this one) Protecting the ship from the increased likelyhood of contact with space debris.
5. Landing on and taking off from Mars is a very different ball game than landing and taking off from the Moon.
-Mars has an atmosphere making the efficient design of the LM most likely inadequate.
-The moon has 1/6th gravity of the Earth while Mars has roughly 1/3 the gravity. This changes the rocketry problem in terms of reaching escape velocity significantly especially when coupled with drag from the atmosphere.
6. The program could not and should not move as quickly as Apollo did from a logistics stand point. Missions where we just prove we can get a person there and back would take a year in comparison to the 6 days lunar orbit on Apollo 8 took.
Now, these are not reasons we'll never go and I think it's a noble and exciting cause. I was just having fun thinking about the larger hurdles necessary to put a person on Mars. I'm sure I missed a bunch so what else is there that you guys can think of? And of course feel free to tell me why some of the things I listed aren't really that much of an obstacle.