HUMAN EXPLORATION ON DEIMOS SPACE PORT
- Paper number
IAC-08.D3.2.3
- Author
Mr. HARIRAM MISTRY, MISTRY CONSTRUCTION CO., India
- Coauthor
Mr. ASHISH MISTRY, SARDAR VALLBHBHAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY , GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, India
- Coauthor
Mr. CHIRAGKUMAR TALA, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Best mission to Mars starts at Deimos, the outermost of the two satellites. Use the moon (Deimos) -- an odd-shaped object with an average diameter of 8 miles (13 kilometers) that orbits 12,400 miles (20,000 kilo-meters) from Mars -- as a shield against cosmic rays and solar storms. Call it a space rock dock. Following are the abilities of Deimos which makes it Space Port. Efficient Control on Mission: From the relatively safe perch high above the Red Planet, the crew would send robotic probes to the surface of Mars and control them in real-time (whereas the distance between Earth and Mars creates a long communications delay). The long-er period of Deimos of ¼1.26 days would enable long-er periods of teleoperation without interruption. And instead of enduring months of red dust on the harsh Martian surface, a small team could make a quick weekend sortie to the surface to do those things only humans can do. It's cheaper. It can be done faster, sooner, It’s safer, much safer, can get more informa-tion about Mars by exploring it from Deimos than by landing on the surface. For one thing, the scheme would avoid the need to build a costly Mars base, required to shield the crew from deadly radiation. And sidling a large spacecraft up to a low-gravity moon is a lot less costly than set-ting down on Mars, a maneuver that requires a lot more fuel, adding costly weight to a mission. From Deimos, scientists could deploy a series of robotic probes to the Martian surface just as easily as they could from Mars. Fuel Economy: For a round trip to Mars, a similar spacecraft design is likely, with an orbiter that returns to Earth and a lander that does not. An ability to refuel the Earth-return vehicle in Mars orbit would be a huge asset. On Deimos, some scientists and engineers have hoped might be a source of fuel for the return trip from Mars. Water Company on Deimos: Deimos, the outer moon of Mars, is presently the only probable early known accessible source of water. It is the most accessible small body that is "geophysically" anomalous for out-gassing in the inner solar system, and thus is a proba-ble source for water ice. Water is needed in Martian exploration for propellant, life support, and as a chem-ical, physical process media and mineralogical processing. Deltaglider Spacecraft: The low gravity on Deimos avoids the need for high-impulse rocket propulsion systems otherwise required for soft landings and high energy take-offs. The spacecrafts are Orbiter-standard Deltagliders Ex-plores on Deimos."Green Mars" is an Orbiter add-on that replaces the realistic Mars textures with green/blue textures of a possible future "terraformed" Mars.- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)