NASA MTV/Deep Space Plans - How do space stations factor in?

[milbournosphere]

I've been working on a focus for my latest game, and I figured it'd be fun to design crafts/programs with an approach similar to NASA's MTV/Deep space exploration plans. I've been working on a Duna Transfer Vehicle based on plans for the MTV, and have been working on plans to send a mission similar to NASA's plans to harness an asteroid.

However, with my research I haven't really been able to figure how space stations play in to NASA's plans. So far I've been using an ISS-type space station to hold Kerbals and supplies as they move from Kerbin to the ship I'm building in orbit. I've also taken a short spin to the Mun with my first DTV version, and I'm wondering if there are plans to put stations anywhere to support their program. Right now I'm planning on using unmanned transfer missions to build a station in orbit around Duna and potentially a base on Duna's surface, but I'd like to try to track closely to NASA's plans, if possible.

Does anybody have any resources that might provide some insight? Posted in the spacecraft exchange as it pertains to the DTV and support craft I'm working on

Thanks for any insight.

[Tabris]

have you seen this Constellation Mission

[Rune]

I've been working on a focus for my latest game, and I figured it'd be fun to design crafts/programs with an approach similar to NASA's MTV/Deep space exploration plans. I've been working on a Duna Transfer Vehicle based on plans for the MTV, and have been working on plans to send a mission similar to NASA's plans to harness an asteroid.

However, with my research I haven't really been able to figure how space stations play in to NASA's plans. So far I've been using an ISS-type space station to hold Kerbals and supplies as they move from Kerbin to the ship I'm building in orbit. I've also taken a short spin to the Mun with my first DTV version, and I'm wondering if there are plans to put stations anywhere to support their program. Right now I'm planning on using unmanned transfer missions to build a station in orbit around Duna and potentially a base on Duna's surface, but I'd like to try to track closely to NASA's plans, if possible.

Does anybody have any resources that might provide some insight? Posted in the spacecraft exchange as it pertains to the DTV and support craft I'm working on

Thanks for any insight.

Well, Boeing recently released a video you can google about how they see a mission to Mars going forward (hint: it's crazy expensive, crazy in general, not funded, and it ain't gonna happen). But I'm not going to bash it here any further that saying SEP is a Bad Ideaâ„¢, and it does make use of Gateway Station, another proposal by Boeing as a depot for interplanetary missions. There are a couple of .pdf out there that you can google for, keywords would be Boeing, Gateweay Station, Mars Mission, and type of stuff.

That actually makes a bit more sense, since that distant lunar retrograde orbit is pretty sweet for interplanetary launches. Better yet, you have an analogue of it in KSP in Munar orbit, and you can use the gravity well of kerbin by dropping to it from high to help you save some fuel too, if you first take the extra effort to depart from that high up.

Rune. Hope that inspires!

Edited January 27, 2015 by Rune

[Torquemadus]

Modern mission plans for sending humans to Mars try to avoid the use of space stations altogether.

Early mission plans for missions to Mars, such as Werhner Von Braun's Die Marsproject and George Bush Senior's Space Exploration Initiative, required all of the propellants and consumables used on the mission to be lifted from Earth. This required on-orbit assembly of a massive interplanetary spaceship dubbed "Battlestar Galactica" by it's critics. The plan requires a massive Earth orbiting space dockyard. Some variations also factor in a huge Moon base as well, so that oxygen made from lunar material can be used as propellant for the giant spaceship. Due to limited consumables, the mission only allows a stay on Mars of a few weeks for the crew, who also lack significant provision for surface mobility. The SEI version had an estimated cost of 450 billion dollars.

The alternative method, known as

, is to launch spacecraft directly to Mars on heavy lift boosters comparable to the Saturn 5 (or modern equivalents). In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) is used to produce propellants and consumables on Mars. The crew are able to stay on the surface for one and a half Earth years. During which time they have access to long ranged surface vehicles, powered by liquid fuels produced on Mars. Total programme cost has been estimated at 30 to 50 billion dollars spread over a ten year programme.

NASA have produced design reference missions based on variations of this plan.

The upcoming ISRU feature should allow missions of this type to be flown in KSP.

[Rune]

Modern mission plans for sending humans to Mars try to avoid the use of space stations altogether.

Early mission plans for missions to Mars, such as Werhner Von Braun's Die Marsproject and George Bush Senior's Space Exploration Initiative, required all of the propellants and consumables used on the mission to be lifted from Earth. This required on-orbit assembly of a massive interplanetary spaceship dubbed "Battlestar Galactica" by it's critics. The plan requires a massive Earth orbiting space dockyard. Some variations also factor in a huge Moon base as well, so that oxygen made from lunar material can be used as propellant for the giant spaceship. Due to limited consumables, the mission only allows a stay on Mars of a few weeks for the crew, who also lack significant provision for surface mobility. The SEI version had an estimated cost of 450 billion dollars.

The alternative method, known as

, is to launch spacecraft directly to Mars on heavy lift boosters comparable to the Saturn 5 (or modern equivalents). In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) is used to produce propellants and consumables on Mars. The crew are able to stay on the surface for one and a half Earth years. During which time they have access to long ranged surface vehicles, powered by liquid fuels produced on Mars. Total programme cost has been estimated at 30 to 50 billion dollars spread over a ten year programme.

NASA have produced design reference missions based on variations of this plan.

The upcoming ISRU feature should allow missions of this type to be flown in KSP.

I've always thought Mars Direct would be even more direct if it used existing launchers for its payloads and mated them with their departure stages in LEO. At the very least that wold save the development cost of the huge Saturn V class rocket, by introducing the whooping complexity and technological impossibility of three docking maneuvers. Because clearly that's science fiction of the kind portrayed in TV shows.

Rune. This kind of debate reminds me of the legend regarding LOR... and how much it took in RL for Nasa to get behind the idea!

[milbournosphere]

Hey, thanks guys. Looks like I have some reading to do.