There are folks out there eager to get to Mars. I applaud their eagerness, but must disagree with their proposed method. You see, they want to get to Mars by boat.
No, not literally, but figuratively speaking that’s what it amounts to. You see, up to now we’ve been sending out men and women in boats. Canoes and kayaks in the case of the first space craft, a boat in the case of the shuttle. The ISS is itself a clumsy, clunky, slapped together raft, and that’s about it.
Now for our trips to the moon a canoe did the job tolerably well. But for all intents and purposes we were only crossing a small river. To get to Mars we’ll have to cross a sea, and for that we’ve going to need a ship.
That’s right, a space ship. A bonafide ship capable of holding a crew, and landing craft. Ships boats that is. The sort of craft needed to land on a planet.
But, our space ship will need to provide gravity for the crew, because a year long voyage in micro-gravity is too dang long. But how to provide artificial gravity?
Rotate the ship.
Small problem, in order for things to be comfortable for the crew the ship will have to have a sizable diameter. How to handle this? That’s simple, build it like the glorious space stations of 50s and 60s science fiction. That’s right, a great wheel in the sky. Place rockets in the hub and send it off on a great, slow circuit that would eventually end up at Mars.
Now here’s the big problem with my idea, inertia. A crewed ship with all the supplies needed is going to be massive. I’m thinking of only 200 men and women, but feeding, hydrating, providing air for, and handling the waste products of that number of people is going to require supplies in ton lots.
So there you have my Mars Expedition ship. It looks just like an old fashion great wheel space station, which rotates around a relatively stationary hub bearing the rockets that will send the craft to Mars. Just attaching wheel to hub is going to take some advances in technique and technology, because I don’t think we’re capable of it yet. Learning how to safely transit from wheel to hub is going to take practice.
But what about the struts connecting the hub to the wheel? Isn’t that the problem with the Enterprise in Star Trek.
Inertia would be the problem, and as long as the struts have the tensile strength to handle it inertia should be no problem. Remember, friction is not a problem for a vessel floating free in space.
So here’s my scenario. Our Mars expeditionary ship (the Bob Heinlein is my suggested name) is a great wheel type of vessel with a crew of 200. It consists of a wheel connected by four struts to a hub with contain the rockets that move the Bob Heinlein through space. The wheel and struts rotate around the hub, which must remain relatively stationary in order for the ship to move.
After constructing the Bob Heinlein and crewing her we start the journey to Mars by placing the ship into Solar orbit. Why Solar orbit? Cheaper in fuel and less stress on the ship. Over time the ship is accelerated until it achieves Mars’ orbit and can then rendezvous with the Red Planet. Once in Mars orbit a landing craft is sent down with a landing crew and history is made,
Obviously I’m thinking of a multi-year journey, which is why I’m thinking of a sizable crew. Why 200 people? So each member of the crew while have people they don’t know all that well. People they can contact when they need fresh faces.
You see, we’re not really suited to dealing with people we know real well for extended periods of time. We need to get out and see things that are new to us, and to meet people we don’t know. We need novelty. With 200 people — and the environs they dwell in — to engage ourselves with we can get all the novelty we need.
So there you have my disorganized thinking on our first expedition to Mars. Not borne on a boat, by carried by a ship. A ship designed to give us a workable artificial gravity and capable of carrying enough people to keep each other from going bug fuck during the long journey.
A boat with a crew of six just won’t do, it’s going to take a ship with a crew of 200 or so. What say we start working towards making it a reality.
By the way, if you must be formal, we could always call her the Robert Anson Heinlein, but he always did prefer being called Bob.
