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Kaos

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Everything posted by Kaos

  1. Kaos
    I also see Blue Origin a bigger competitor for Virgin Galactic than for SpaceX. I also find their achievements impressive, but not quite as impressive as SpaceX achievements.
  2. Kaos
    Sorry, I do not understand your post. BO = Blue Origin, TX = Texas, NM = New Mexico? Still do not get it.
  3. Kaos
    One thing I always wonder about the Dragon-V2: It says it is fully reusable. But it throws away its trunk. Is there a plan to change that? Is the trunk not counted into fully? Will the trunk itself also be capable of landing eventually? Does anyone know more about that?
  4. Kaos
    I known. That is why I wrote "If we manage to develop" instead of "we should". A fission sail is similar to a solar sail, but layered with some alpha-emitter on one side. Dependent on the mass fraction and the used isotope one gets somewhat between 1-5km/s/a with an acceleration halftime between 70 and 400 years. In that case, one would at least not need the ion drives To make it clear: I consider this mission plan cool, perhaps possible, but not likely.
  5. Kaos
    If we manage to develop a cube sat sized probe that has decent scientific instruments on it we could send one to each of the minor planets. If 50% succeed this program would already be a great success and we would learn a lot. If we fit them with fission sails, we could even plan the missions such that they go into orbit.
  6. Kaos
    No, I have not read that. But I am aware of the 90 day study, the plan NASA came up in 1989. It includes 8 different rockets types, alone 14 Space Shuttle launches per year, in-orbit assembly base, a lunar base to mine the fuel, nuclear propulsion, and would need over 20 years to bring the first human to Mars. This 90 day study was the reason, why Zubrin et al developed Mars Direct: One type of rockets, two starts every two years, humans to Mars 10 years after the start of the plan. NASA later admitted somehow that his plan worked and developed the Design Reference Mission with 3 Rockets every two years but other than that essentially a copy of Mars Direct. This fits a say that is attributed to Sergei Korolev, albeit unknown if he really said that: The simpler a construction the more genius it is. Everyone can come up with something complicated.
  7. Kaos
    I am sure we will switch to some other method eventually. But I do not know to which one. And I am quite sure that it will take a while until we use a flight plan with no free return trajectory (aka shorter or faster flight). Thank you for adding chemical to the poll.
  8. Kaos
    Solar flares are also handled in Mars Direct. You can construct a safety tube in the middle of your craft that is shielded by the supplied you bring with you. If you use a faster flight plan, you still have to do that, as you still can be hit by solar flares. So this again is an argument for chemical propulsion.
  9. Kaos
    That is your opinion. Not my opinion. So you do not want to have my vote in the poll? I can live with that, but then the poll is not complete and perhaps that is not what you want.
  10. Kaos
    Then we should test it. The amount of radiation is not that bad, by the way. To quote Zubrin again: If we send smokers but leave the tobacco on earth we will actually lower their cancer risk. Furthermore, while I belief that NERVA could be developed, I think that implementing Mars direct is faster without first waiting to develop Mars Direct. Then I think it is likely that waiting for all that future technology is the reason why we have no manned Mars mission yet.
  11. Kaos
    I would use the mars direct plan or a pair of aldrin-cyclers with some food production modules. Both do not directly require inflatable modules, while they would be nice to have.
  12. Kaos
    And chemical. Obviously some people want to vote for that.
  13. Kaos
    Thanks for quoting, I have not seen the if anything goes wrong in the first part: If you use a "slow" chemical propulsion system, you can choose your flight plan such that if anything goes wrong, you are already on a free return trajectory back to earth. If you use some of the proposed fast propulsion systems, you are totally doomed as soon as your propulsion system gets problems. So alone from safety reasons I would use a chemical propulsion system.
  14. Kaos
    Artificial gravity is not complicated. In Mars Direct (1990) it is even shown how to use the empty upper stage of the rocket that is flying the way anyway and a cable of some kg to do that. I prefer to use technology that was 1990 already known for a long time and not technology that has not proven to work today.
  15. Kaos
    Well, we could use some electric propulsion systems to bring supply goods on slow missions there. On a five-year trajectory we would get a much better mass ratio for the supplies. And some stuff we want, can be stored that long.
  16. Kaos
    I do not consider chemical propulsion too inefficient. Some month can be waited and the technology exists. The other methods are only a bit faster, if at all. But rely on stuff that does not exists.
  17. Kaos
    Does the Kraken also predates KSP? I mean in the KSP sense of Kraken, not the animal
  18. Kaos
    The only way this makes sense to me, is that the F9 price is todays launch price, FH price is only in case they manage the landing. And in that case, the F9 price is also likely to go down, then.
  19. Kaos
    It depends whether you think in terms of individuals or groups. If you think in terms of individuals, that is no backup at all, that is right. But if you think in terms of groups, this is a backup. The chance of the individual on Mount Everest are worse than the chance of the family at home, that is right. But the chance of getting them all dying is smaller. I for myself think of a compromise of both: I consider the fate of humanity relevant, but not as the only relevant thing. A colony on Mars would not save me, but was at least some kind of backup for humanity. If I would only see the backup reason for colonizing Mars, I would consider this a bit slim. But as additional reason I find it valid.
  20. Kaos
    As far as I know, there are already regions where they are eaten as long as some research in that direction.
  21. Kaos
    I know the problems with aluminum. Nevertheless, I think it might be worth the effort. At least if we build several or bigger moon bases. Less efficient is not that a problem, as it is efficient enough for the proposed usage. Perhaps there is also a combination with other stuff from moon, which works better? Thermite like stuff, perhaps; thermite seems to be producable from moon stuff.
  22. Kaos
    Thank you for clarification.
  23. Kaos
    I did not know that reason for 4 legs, interesting information, thank you. But for New Shepard: I thought it had four legs. Also all photos I have found look like four legs. Do you have a source for that?
  24. Kaos
    If we had a sufficient reliable landable main stage, we could just fly it to the location where we need it, so transportation on the road is no necessity on long sight. At least if we need a small number of relocations in relation to the number of launches.
  25. Kaos
    You mean the weight ratio in methane combustion? Well, you have 4 H, 1 C and 3 O as combustion result per methane molecule. That is 4 u atomic mass for hydrogen, 12 u carbon and 48 u for oxygen. So if you just bring the methane to the moon and collect the oxygen locally, you already get a fuel reduction by 75%, which is an acceptable amount to begin with. I would try to make an aluminum/oxygen engine. You can get both stuff on the moon and it is efficient enough to construct a single stage moon surface -> moon orbit -> moon surface vehicle. That would be a great vehicle to transport anything from anywhere to anywhere on and around moon, if it is flown automatically. And to get back closer to the topic: Burn the aluminum with oxygen in the night to get heat and electricity. The energy density is quite good.
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