Humans to Mars by 2028? Check Out Lockheed Martin's Red Planet 'Base Camp' Idea

[kevindavis007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsOvixkzZ_E



Lockheed Martin has launched its campaign to establish a "Mars Base Camp" — a vision for sending humans to Mars by 2028.


In its Mars Base Camp concept video, the aerospace compant Lockheed Martin lays out a plan that would transport astronauts from Earth to a Mars-orbiting science laboratory, where they could perform real-time scientific exploration, analyze Martian rock and soil samples,and confirm the ideal place to land humans on the surface.


Lockheed Martin foresees launching this orbiting science station in 2028, setting the stage for a human landing mission in the 2030s.



Key elements
The elements of Mars Base Camp are:

• Orion: NASA's in-development crew capsule, built with deep-space life support, communications and navigation capabilities;
• Space Launch System: NASA's super-heavy-lift rocket, designed to send critical labs, habitats and supplies to Mars;
• Habitats: Deep-space habitats will give astronauts room to live and work on the way to Mars;
• [Solar Electric Propulsion: Based on technology already in place on satellites, this advanced propulsion will pre-position key supplies in Mars orbit.

Interplanetary ship
As detailed by Lockheed Martin, the major components of the architecture will be launched separately. Some will be pre-positioned in Mars orbit ahead of time.

Other components are assembled in Earth-moon space for the journey to Mars. Six astronauts would launch on Orion, which serves as the heart of the Mars Base Camp interplanetary ship.

To learn more about Lockheed Martin's Mars mission concept, visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ssc/mars-orion.html.

Source: http://www.interstellar-news.net/2016/06/humans-to-mars-by-2028-check-out.html

[geronl]

It could be China though. You never know.

[Chieftain]

This whole "let's go to Mars" business is over-rated.  Way over-rated.  Why would we want to escape one gravity well to go focus on another one??

What is more important in my view is building an industrial and manufacturing business in some place well beyond High Earth Orbit.  There are already a couple of companies out there actively designing equipment to harness and collect asteroids and mine them for their contents for manufacturing and cheap rocket fuel, all using unlimited solar energy far from the Earth/moon shadow in space.

Chew on this for a moment....NASA recently decided to send a probe out to an immense metal asteroid named Psyche.  They think it is the stripped Iron/Nickle core of an ancient planet.

On earth, the Platinum group of metals occurs naturally in Iron/Nickel deposits, roughly .001 Grams or so of all per ton of Iron/nickel ore.  If Psyche is a 300 mile diameter ball of nearly pure iron/nickle, how many thousand tons of Platinum group metals would be buried within it??

See the Commercial exploitation possibilities??

All of this talk of 3-D printing....show me a 3-D printer that can make structural components out of carbon in a weightless environment. 

We're only a little over a century since the first manned flight.....

 

[kevindavis007]

It could be China though. You never know.

If it is, better get my browncoat.. ;)

[geronl]

Chew on this for a moment....NASA recently decided to send a probe out to an immense metal asteroid named Psyche.  They think it is the stripped Iron/Nickle core of an ancient planet.

No real gravity well. It would take less fuel to get there than to the moon and back probably. The drawback is working in no gravity is hard. You try to turn a bolt and you could turn your body around easier than turning the bolt. You have to be anchored and it makes things tougher. You need to automate the process as much as possible.

[geronl]

If it is, better get my browncoat.. ;)

... you can't take the sky from me....