Human Missions to Mars: Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet

ISBN-13: 9783319330921 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 582 str.

Donald Rapp

Recenzje

"This second edition of Donald Rapp's book is an impressive, comprehensive, and well-organized work that begins by exploring the history of the planning of human flights to Mars. ... There are three very comprehensive Appendices, which derive full statistical data for collecting solar energy on the Moon and Mars, and the quantities of water to be found on Mars at different localities (including a discussion of the topical 'slope lineae'). A Glossary completes the text." (Richard McKim, The Observatory, Vol. 136 (1253), August, 2016)

Spis treści

Why Explore Mars?.- Planning Space Campaigns and Missions.- 60+ Years of Humans to Mars Mission Planning.- Getting There and Back.- Critical Mars Mission Elements.- In Situ Utilization of Indigenous Resources.- Why the NASA approach will likely fail to send humans to Mars for many decades to come.

Blurb

A mission to send humans to explore the surface of Mars has been theultimate goal of planetary exploration since the 1950s, when von Braun envisaged a flotilla of 10 interplanetary vessels carrying a crew of at least 70 humans. Since then, more than 1,000 studies have been carried out on human missions to Mars, but after 60 years of study, we remain in the early planning stages. The second edition of this book now includes an annotated history of Mars mission studies, with quantitative data wherever possible.

As in the first edition, Donald Rapp looks at human  missions  to  Mars from an engineering perspective. He divides each mission into a number of stages: Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit (LEO); departing from LEO toward Mars; Mars orbit insertion and entry, descent and landing; ascent from Mars; trans-Earth injection from Mars orbit; and Earth return.  For each segment, he analyzes requirements for candidate technologies.  In this connection, he discusses  the  status  and  potential  of  a wide  range of elements critical to a human Mars mission, including life support consumables, radiation effects and shielding, microgravity effects, abort options and mission safety, possible habitats on the Martian surface and aero-assisted orbit entry descent and landing. For any human mission to the Red Planet the possible utilization of any resources indigenous to Mars would be of great value; such possibilities are discussed at length. He also discusses the relationship of lunar exploration to Mars exploration.

Detailed appendices describe the availability of solar energy on the Moon and Mars, and the potential for utilizing indigenous water on Mars.The second edition provides extensive updating and additions to the first edition, including many new figures and tables, and more than 70 new references, as of 2015.