Permanent crewed Mars base by 2030 - Outcomes of an interdisciplinary, multinational student workshop
- Paper number
IAC-18,E2,3-GTS.4,9,x43032
- Author
Mr. Markus Guerster, United States, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Coauthor
Mr. Akhsanto Anandito, Sweden, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- Coauthor
Ms. Katya Arquilla, United States, University of Colorado Boulder
- Coauthor
Ms. Ebru Dinc, Germany, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design
- Coauthor
Mr. Marcel Frommelt, Germany, University of Stuttgart
- Coauthor
Mr. Jerome Gilleron, United States, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering
- Coauthor
Ms. Alessia Gloder, Italy, University of Padova
- Coauthor
Mr. Gonzalo Gutierrez, Spain, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
- Coauthor
Mr. Gunter Just, Germany, University of Stuttgart
- Coauthor
Ms. Aleksandra Kozawska, Spain, Glasgow School of Art
- Coauthor
Ms. Diana Luis, Portugal, Instituto Superior Técnico
- Coauthor
Mr. Athanasios Margaritis, Belgium, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
- Coauthor
Mr. Dominik Merkle, Germany, University of Stuttgart
- Coauthor
Mr. Jorge Monteiro, Portugal, University of Beira Interior
- Coauthor
Mr. Patrick Palmetshofer, Germany, Institute of Space Systems, Universität Stuttgart
- Coauthor
Mr. Mariano Sánchez Olmos, Spain, Universitat Politècnica de València - UPV
- Coauthor
Mr. Balaji Soundararajan, Germany, Technical University Berlin
- Coauthor
Mr. Liviu Stamat, Sweden, Luleå University of Technology
- Coauthor
Ms. Ekaterina Timakova, Russian Federation, Bauman Moscow State Technical University
- Year
2018
- Abstract
Indisputably, we live at the dawn of a novel space exploration era, with the space sector undergoing significant changes. The International Space Station (ISS) is nearing the end of its lifespan and a competitive space industry is emerging, characterized by an ongoing redistribution of responsibilities between government agencies and private enterprise, with all stakeholders setting ambitious goals for future missions. Recently, interest in the next crewed space exploration mission has grown continuously. Driven by these developments, the Space Station Design Workshop (SSDW) 2017 in Stuttgart, Germany, posed the challenge to conduct the preliminary analysis and develop a viable proposal to establish a permanent space station in the vicinity of Mars by the year 2030. Two multinational, interdisciplinary teams of twenty students each were given one week to develop their own solutions and present them to experts from industry and academia. The authors, 'Team Blue', have outlined a design for a Mars surface station, called 'HUMANS2MARS'. This proposal requires the development of mission-specific modules, while the launchers to be used include the foreseen state-of-the-art at the late 2020s, such as the Space Launch System from NASA and Falcon Heavy from SpaceX. Planning such a mission from scratch in one week posed great challenges, either innate in the technical and programmatic difficulties of the mission, or resulting from the time constraints and group dynamics of the project. The main technical challenges can be grouped into two sets. The first includes those related to mass and payload limitations of the missions and launching costs. The second consists of those related to the human element of the mission. Due to the hostile Martian environment, extreme radiation levels during transit and unexplored psychological pressure on the crew, the complexities associated with humans introduce significant uncertainties. Potential solutions to the problems discovered have been proposed and are presented in this paper, within the framework of a multicultural and interdisciplinary workshop. The major risks of the proposed mission are identified and possible mitigation strategies and backup scenarios are discussed, thus providing a starting point for future research and detailed studies. The complexity of the mission and nature of the SSDW require addressing a great variety of challenges under severe time constraints. A crucial factor in the success of this effort has been the multidisciplinary and diverse academic background of the participants. This enabled the team to overcome these numerous obstacles in often unconventional ways.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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