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Planning A Manned Return Mission... To A Comet!


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  kerbonaut101 said:
(a manned return mission to a comet would be an incredibly hard thing to accomplish)

Challenge accepted.

As you probably know, comets have huge orbits that are sometimes beyond Pluto and sometimes close enough to the sun to melt. This makes intercepting one very, very hard. The Asteroid Redirect thing might not cut it. So, the question to the awesome, scientifically minded KSP community is this: What would a manned landing on a comet look like? If you need a justification for why we would send actual astronauts, just assume 'Because we can'. (Remember, that's why we climbed Mount Everest!)

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  The Jedi Master said:
Ah, come on, my Venus thread last year got lots of posts!

Problem with this one is that it only require high dV, you need to use an suitable comet, one in an well know orbit who is not too far of plane and don't go to close to the sun.

Then you need an engine type. Fusion, orion or nuclear salt water would all work well.

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A comet like 67P could be reached with a Jupiter-capable ship. Get there when the comet is near Aphelion, land, do science when it goes around perihelion, leave after and do a retro burn to get an Earth intercept. Should take several years, but that's entirely capable for a ship that can reach the outer planets.

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  ScallopPotato said:
Should take several years, but that's entirely capable for a ship that can reach the outer planets.

If we're talking about a manned mission, this will be a serious problem. How do we feed half a dozen men and/or women with absolutely no resupply from Terra whatsoever? Also, microgravity has negative health effects on living organisms, so even having a hydroponic setup running off wastewater would be troublesome. This could be mitigated by using centrifuges, but that adds structural strength requirements, which adds weight, possibly stripping it off the useful science equipments and maybe subspacecrafts (i.e. landers).

On engines, I wouldn't propose a nuclear pulse drive (Orion), since jarring a somewhat delicate life-support shell with people in them every burn doesn't seem like a good idea. Nuclear thermal rockets (NERVA) are the closest we have to workable technologies, so I imagine these would be used.

Edited by shynung
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  shynung said:
If we're talking about a manned mission, this will be a serious problem. How do we feed half a dozen men and/or women with absolutely no resupply from Terra whatsoever? Also, microgravity has negative health effects on living organisms, so even having a hydroponic setup running off wastewater would be troublesome. This could be mitigated by using centrifuges, but that adds structural strength requirements, which adds weight, possibly stripping it off the useful science equipments and maybe subspacecrafts (i.e. landers).

On engines, I wouldn't propose a nuclear pulse drive (Orion), since jarring a somewhat delicate life-support shell with people in them every burn doesn't seem like a good idea. Nuclear thermal rockets (NERVA) are the closest we have to workable technologies, so I imagine these would be used.

NASA plans on using artificial gravity and BNTR rockets to the outer planets anyway.

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  The Jedi Master said:
-snip- just assume 'Because we can'. (Remember, that's why we climbed Mount Everest!)

The quote was actually "because it is there"

But same thing really. I'd suggest moving its orbit like with an asteroid.

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