Human Missions to Mars Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red P
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
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Donald Rapp
Springer Praxis Books Astronautical Engineering
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5495
Donald Rapp
Human Missions to Mars Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet Second Edition
123
Donald Rapp South Pasadena, CA USA
ISSN 2365-9599 Springer Praxis Books ISBN 978-3-319-22248-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22249-3
ISSN 2365-9602
(electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-22249-3
(eBook)
Jointly published with Praxis Publishing, Chichester, UK Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950457 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London 1st edition: © Praxis Publishing Ltd., Chichester, UK 2008 2nd edition: © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Human missions to Mars represent the pinnacle of solar system exploration for the next half-century. In addition to providing a means of exploring Mars, such missions would represent an inspiring engineering achievement and create a new era of expansion of humanity into space. Because such missions would require a major technological effort as well as very large expenditures, they remain for the moment as futuristic concepts embodied in paper studies by visionaries, advocates, and enthusiasts. As we point out in Chap. 3, David Portree reported that since the 1950s, “more than 1,000 piloted Mars mission studies were conducted inside and outside NASA” and he provided descriptions of 50 of the most developed studies. While a great deal of effort has been addressed on paper to conceptual human missions to Mars, many of these have relied upon technologies such as nuclear thermal propulsion, space nuclear reactor power, large-scale aero-assisted entry descent and landing, and long-life, high-efficiency recycling, and although some work has been done on these technologies, none of the
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