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#1 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-05-21 05:01:31

Calliban, #336
Thanks for the link to the video, looks interesting.

louis wrote:

Is it tight? A minimum of 500 tonnes.
Energy system (nuclear or solar) - c 150 tons.
Habs - 10 tons
Food and LSS Supplies - 50 tons
Propellant plant facility - 20 tons?
Spare parts/feedstocks - 50 tons?
Medical supplies and equiipment - 20 tons?
Industrial 3D printers - 30 tons.
You've got plenty of spare tonnage for Rovers, robots etc. For Mission One, I'd like to see
x2 Human rated rovers (for exploration and mining activity) (6 tons?)
x4 Robot drillers  (4 tons)
x2 Robot diggers (2 tons)
x4 Robot transporters (8 tons)
x2 Boston Dynamics Robodogs adapted for Mars (0.5 tons?)
x2 Inspection Robots - for inspecting exterior of Starships. (0.1 tons)

Is this your assumption or do you have a source?

#2 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-28 11:14:39

@Thomas
I absolutely agree that I need to add references.
I have added the sources to the post.

@RobertDyck
Thanks for the correction!

@louis
Good point about the workload. I will include the use of robotics. And I will also add the "difficult topics".

#3 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-27 00:00:23

RobertDyck wrote:

This is an area that NASA management has traditionally been obsessed. American culture is obsessed with sex, but upper class elites like to pretend they have Puritan values. NASA wanted to prohibit any sexual activity what so ever for the reasons you state. When the International Space Station was built, there were other countries involved. The European Space Agency brings European values. They are quite adamant about this: what adults do on their own time is their business. Management has no business telling adults what they can or cannot do with sex. So policy for ISS was established (at least as released to members of the public like me) that space agencies cannot dictate sexual activity or lack thereof to astronauts. They can insist that astronauts be discrete, and the emphasis is that individuals must be professionals at all times, they must be able to continue to work together. European representatives treated NASA's attitude toward sex as adolescent, not mature. As if Americans have never learned how to grow up.
One Space Shuttle mission did have a married couple on the same mission. They went into space together. Many people have speculated what happened up there. However, the crew cabin of Shuttle is actually quite small. If anything did happen, absolutely everyone on the Shuttle would have heard everything.

That a good side note, I will also include it.

-

Sources from post #318 (Books:)

Mars Prospect Energy and Material Resources
Mars - Wie wir den roten Planeten besiedeln
Use of extraterrestrial resources for human space missions to moon or Mars

-

Oldfart1939 wrote:

I'm certainly willing to set up and **own** such a topic. I looked at what Noah has written and his thoughts are in a way, similar to mine, but from a different approach in reaching his conclusions.

I also think that would be a good idea. Then we would have two approaches, which makes things more interesting.

#4 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-26 06:28:48

GW Johnson wrote:

Using those definitions,  "settlement" is NOT what you do in the initial landing or landings on Mars (or the moon,  or anywhere else).  WRONG GOAL!!!  You are very far from being ready to do that!  You do NOT yet really know "for sure" how to "live off the land".  That appropriate-goal lesson is centuries old,  even here on Earth.  Read your history.

Thank you for your comment! I agree that the word " settlement" is misleading. I will change it in my comments.

@Thomas
Can I also change the name of the topic?
(P.s.: Thanks for your email. I have followed your tip.)

@Louis
Thanks for the links, they are helpful!

#5 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-26 06:20:22

CREW SIZE

From a moral point of view, the number of crew members should be kept small. But what is actually even more important than keeping the crew small is keeping the crew safe! So in order to achieve the mission objective, do science, and bring the crew back safely, there are several requirements for the crew. There are four critical factors that affect crew size:
First, there are personnel requirements, which primarily include scientific and technical skills. Second, there is the workload, which should be an interplay of productive work as well as rest breaks. Third is psychological factor. A mission that lasts over 2.5 years will bring some problems, mainly due to confinement and isolation. Fourth is the composition of the crew, should it be more homogeneous or heterogeneous (in terms of nationality, gender, age and experience).

Personnel requirements
A minimum crew for operations, maintenance, and overhead is needed, about 2 to 3 people. The mission critical person would definitely be a mechanic for the electrical systems or life support systems.  The lives of the crew would depend on his/her skills. Therefore, this person should be an experienced mechanic with hands-on skills to troubleshoot most problems. A person or rather persons with medical skills are also irreplaceable. All crew members need basic medical knowledge and are trained in first aid.
Further, a field scientist/geologist would also be needed to explore the Martian landscape to find resources for the ISRU and to understand the history of Mars. Further, a geologist would be needed to find new evidence to answer the question of past or present life.
A partial list for mission jobs might include:
Technological Skills:
Commander
Spacecraft Engineer
Manufacturing Engineer
Navigation
Communication
Software Engineering
Scientific skills:
Geology
Biology
Medicine
Atmosphere
Meteorology
Astronomy
It is not necessary to bring an expert for each field. It is not necessary to bring a "pilot" or commander. Yes, we need them, but a commander could be mainly a mechanic who has the skills to lead the crew. Redundancy is needed to make the mission as safe as possible. The mission critical people should definitely be at least dual. So the crew maximum would be all 12 skills plus redundancy in the mission critical people, which would be around 20 people.

Workload
In the 1970s, there was a "Skylab mission" where the astronauts had a tough schedule. For this reason, the crew went on strike for one day. Therefore, a good time segment is very important. 
To determine the workload, it is useful to note what work needs to be done and what should be done. All issues related to safety and life support have the highest priority, followed by exploration and science.
There have been several studies on the workload and psychological effects in a Mars-like environment such as in the Arctic/Antarctica, in low Earth orbit, in isolation chambers, and in underwater submarines.
After landing on Mars, the first month will likely be the hardest. There are three options for the building: 1. bring the whole building, 2. print the building in advance, or 3. build it on site, after landing. Regardless of which case occurs, the team will have a heavy workload. They will need to install power supplies and life support systems. If they are a larger team, they can divide the work more efficiently, but they will also have to do more work. In such a case, with a shortage of people, a larger crew at the top end (about ~ 16) is better. However, this should not happen so often, so such a large team would probably be superfluous. The team then moves into the maintenance phase, which is more repetitive but also more demanding. This would mainly involve cleaning and repairs. Coinciding with the start of science and exploration. Lamamy et al. (2005) noted that for a four-person crew, probably 80% of the crew time would be devoted to self-maintenance and about 20% of the crew time would be devoted to science and exploration. With a crew of six, this ratio would possibly change to 60-40. It should be noted that these numbers are quite subjective at this early stage.  However, with a larger crew, the ratio would allow more room for science and exploration. So with a crew of 8 or more, the crew would have plenty of time for science and would not be constantly engaged in self-maintenance.
What also needs to be considered is the schedule of how and when the crew operates. For example, the ISS crew gets a schedule from the Earth crew, and that works well. But on Mars, a response from the Earth crew would take about 40 minutes because of the long distance. Accordingly, the crew has to operate largely autonomously. This also has an impact on various other psychological factors.

Psychological factors
The aforementioned studies also collected useful data on psychological factors. They are listed in total in Table 3. I will only go through the most important points. The results were all similar: most crew members had a pleasant and harmonious time. Nevertheless, they all missed their family/friends, or unfamiliar faces and other things. One of the biggest hurdles was isolation and confinement. Constantly next to others and almost no space of their own.  They also found that larger crews have a higher rate of deviance and conflict than smaller crews. Therefore, crew size should be kept small in terms of psychological aspects. But still many psychological aspects are not well researched. For example, the earth-out-of-sight phenomenon. It is not clear how much the crew is affected by this phenomenon.
Composition
Composition is in terms of nationality, gender, age, and experience. In general, deviance and conflict increased with mission duration, with the deviance peak in the tired quarter. Dudley - Rowley investigation of teams respond in a heterogeneity or homogeneity group. Heterogeneity differentiates people from each other, this makes thinking about a long duration more interesting. However, they start with higher levels of deviance, conflict, and dysfunction - but they decrease. Perhaps this is how some innovative solutions emerge, because of the different skills and experiences. In homogeneous teams, the start was quite comfortable. After the middle to the end of the third quarter, conflicts increase sharply. Especially gender plays a role in the composition. To date, there has been no systematic research on the behavior and performance of mixed- and same-sex groups that arise under confinement and isolation. Nevertheless, there are several risks associated with sexual activity:
formation of couples
interpersonal tensions due to jealousy
sexual deprivation can be harder to bear in the presence of people perceived as sexually attractive
sexual harassment
unwanted pregnancy
Only the last risk cannot be associated with homosexuality, but the other one can. So this does not make a same-sex group more favorable. There are also some proposals to send married couples on a Mars mission, but this does not seem realistic, as high technical skills are required.

So how many should go and in what constellation?
Based on the facts, an eight-person crew consisting of a mixed & heterogeneous team seems most likely. A crew of eight allows for a dedicated crewmember for the most critical function, while still allowing for some redundancy in capability coverage and still keeping the mission feasible and affordable.
With a smaller crew, there would likely not be enough time for science and would lead the mission primarily to a survival camp. A crew with more people, say 11 or 12, would also seem reasonable. But there are two main reasons for a smaller crew: the first is to keep the payload as small as possible to allow for a realistic price. In the past, most attempts failed not because of technical problems but because of lack of funds. Second is a moral consideration: regardless of any safety precautions, this mission will be extremely risky. Therefore, the number of crew should be kept to a minimum for the first mission.


SOURCES
Mars Prospect Energy and Material Resources
Mars - Wie wir den roten Planeten besiedeln
Use of extraterrestrial resources for human space missions to moon or Mars

#6 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-24 22:20:18

Thanks Louis and Oldfahrt1939 for your comments.
Thanks RobertDyck and SpaceNut for the sources and informations, looks quite useful.

#7 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-23 02:10:17

Workload

I have summarized the main tasks, did I miss a task?

Main tasks:
-Maintenance (lss, cleaning, repairs).
-Building the settlement (if necessary)
-Production of fuel
-Exploration (search for water & resources)
-Collection and treatment of water
-Energy system "installation"
-Science (search for past or present life).

#8 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-23 01:30:02

Mass requirement

Does anyone have information on mass requirements per person per day (or for a mission to Mars)?
PDF's or websites are also welcome.

#9 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-21 10:23:19

Thomas re #267
I am constantly looking for new arguments concerning crew size. As Thomas said, if someone has new arguments, I will adopt them.

#10 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-20 13:50:27

SpaceNut  wrote:

Noah's reminder;
The crew size is determined when the amount of mass from each incremental person slows the amount of change in ship dry mass to get man leaving Earth to go to mars as to the only thing changing are the life support quantities.
Which effects recycling numbers.
What goes into the selection process
https://www.mars-one.com/mission/mars-one-astronauts
Some of the risk
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6836241
Nasa Gateway mission to Phobos is a prover that we can survive
https://www.space.com/29562-nasa-manned … hobos.html
The Cost and Equivalent System Mass of Space Crew Time
https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/design_l … e_cost.pdf
This is the one that talks to all of how the rockets are designed all the way to its surface and back to earth for the crews survival which means it covers the ballistic entry to mars
Part 1 & 2
https://space.nss.org/wp-content/upload … o-Mars.pdf

Thank you for the information. I will definitely consider them.

#11 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-20 13:47:57

Thomas wrote:

I do have one question about your preference for 8 people in a mission ... You no doubt saw the recommendation of 17 by Oldfart1939.

Yes, I saw his recommendation and he had some important points. Especially in regards to the workload for the settlers.

I will post a rationale for my number by the end of this week.

#12 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-18 04:06:48

Interesting story Robert! I didn't know you joined the Mars Society so early. Great that you are still active after 22 years!

#14 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-17 23:59:18

Discussion

I will periodically post a topic (from post #1) I am working on or will be working on and if you have any advice or useful information, feel free to post a comment.

#15 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-17 23:52:47

Louis

Louis wrote:

I've taken a fairly detailed look at the ECLSS document.
https://www.mars-one.com/images/uploads … ssment.pdf
While it's very thorough, I'm not sure how it relates to a city of one million.

Looks interesting thanks!

#16 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-17 23:51:46

kbd512 wrote:

General Mission Architecture
This thread is Exhibit A as to why we've never left Earth to explore and colonize the moon or Mars.  Instead of admitting to technological reality and selecting existing or technologically feasible equipment that's flight-qualified and thoroughly tested, every attempt to do a worthwhile mission devolves into a pointless ideology battle with various dogmatic, ideologically-motivated special interest groups who do everything in their power to derail productive strategies and technologies selected to achieve the stated program objectives for minimum cost, weight, and power consumption, in favor of some undefined or impractical futuristic technology that doesn't physically exist.  They'd much rather prevent a mission from happening in the first place than they would see anything other than their pet project or technology used in another meaningless crusade to prop up their ideology.  Now you know why we still haven't been to Mars decades after we had the basic requisite technology to go there and come back, with a reasonably good chance of returning a crew alive and in good physical condition.  It was never a matter of technological readiness, but a matter of development priorities and ideology over engineering.  Unfortunately, ideology can't make a round peg fit in a square hole, not that that will ever stop the ideologues from trying.

Yes, I think you're right and it's good to keep that in mind during the design process.

#17 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-17 23:31:12

CV/ learning status
Thomas asked me to give a brief CV/ learning status, so here it goes:

School
After elementary school I went to a high school ( "Marie-Curie-Gymnasium" in Germany).

Internships
During high school, I did internships during the vacations, in 10th and 11th grade. The internships were with a well-known architectural firm called RKW +. There I designed a building from scratch and went through the whole design process, which is similar to the settlement design process.

Architecture competition
After the internships, I participated in an architecture competition for students, where we
were to design and draw a skyscraper.  I won a “Sonderpreis” (special prize).

Study
Shortly after graduating from high school, I took an entrance test for ETH Zurich.
Now I study physics at ETH Zurich and design a settlement desgin with all of you wink

#18 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-17 22:43:34

Thanks Louis and kbd512 for posting with a headline/source!
For the others: If you want your post to be noticed in the future, please add a caption as well.

Thanks Thomas for mentioning the important posts.

Sorry I didn't reply to all the comments, I'm working busy on the concept right now. But I have read all your comments and picked out some interesting stuff.

#19 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-11 13:17:41

kbd512 wrote:

Flip to Page 50 of their report.  In the third column, the one labeled "Avg Power (kw)", locate the row that says "ECLSS Total".  The figure in the column should be "14.8".  Divide that figure by "4".  You should get "3.7".  That is the average power estimate for ECLSS, from a company actively engaged in the design and implementation of ECLSS hardware for NASA.

Sound interesting and I appreciate that you added a source. Thanks!

#20 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-11 13:14:54

Mission One Crew Size

For crew size, we have the following suggestions:
Robert 4,
Louis 6 to 10 (but on the lower end),
Oldfart1939 17.

(If I missed a comment, I am sorry)

Louis,

Point 1 -
I will add the skill pool point to the diagram.

Point 3 -
regarding the "building process": I think I misstated the point. I agree that the accommodations will be self-assembly or 3D printed. By the "building process" point, I meant that if we go with many people, we will need a larger accommodation and therefore more materials, energy.... thus also a more complex / larger construction process. 

SpaceNut,

The energy and payload points have been combined in the diagram, but I will create a separate point for clarification.

#21 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-11 04:33:29

RobertDyck wrote:

I directly sent the 4½ page document. Here's the power summary. Power for oxygen generation had to be estimated, I didn't find details of the one for ISS. Sabatier reactor is exothermic, so once it's started it doesn't consume power. I don't have start-up power, so left it out. These numbers are adjusted for 12 person crew:
toilet: 375 watt peak, 0.071875 kWh per day
water processor: 915 watt peak, 1.40 kWh per day
urine processor: 424 watt operating, 108 watt standby, 255.2 watt continuous
oxygen generation: 1.73 kW continuous
CO2 removal: 0.259 kW continuous
dehumidifier: 0.6 kW continuous
circulation fan: 0.312 kW continuous

Thanks Robert, for the summary! Where can I find the document? Or rather in my private messages? I am not so familiar with the forum yet, or maybe you can send me the document to my email address nallwicher@yahoo.de?

RobertDyck wrote:

File type is .ppt which is Microsoft PowerPoint. It's not .pptx which is the newer format, for Microsoft Office 2007 and later. Remember, the Mars Homestead Project is from 2005. However, all versions of PowerPoint can open the older format. You can download a PowerPoint Viewer free directly from Microsoft. The free viewer can view only, you would have to buy the full version to create content. US version is here: PPTX Viewer

Ahh okay. Thanks, now it works.

#22 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-11 02:56:27

RobertDyck wrote:

Ps. When I was part of Mars Homestead Project, I found technical details for life support equipment for ISS. That includes power requirements. I think that's a fair estimate. The manufacturer kept moving their web pages, as if they didn't want me to see. I think that's silly considering I was recommended we plan to buy life support equipment from them. They proved it works on ISS, so just buy more for Mars. Doesn't that mean I'm giving them free marketing? But that means I could give you those power requirements. And we can estimate heat requirements from JPL's work with rovers.

That's great! Could you send me the power requirements or post them?

#23 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-11 02:21:35

hmwg?

I have seen many calculations for a city with a million inhabitants, this is good and we need to keep them in mind.  For now, a settlement design with about 4 - 20(?) people should be considered. As Oldfart1939 mentioned, we need to discuss "how many will go?" first. Then we can calculate things like energy requirements, etc. I have seen some suggestions for a crew of 6 people and 17 people.
Does anyone have another suggestion or a new argument?

#24 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-10 13:58:36

SpaceNut wrote:

I think its time to slow down so that Noah can get caught up and give insight into what might not be of concern in his proposal to enter the forum....

For me, every comment is valuable, related to the topics in post #1. I would like (and it is my responsibility) to provide a source for all settlement design topics. Therefore, all comments with a source are optimal for me.

#25 Re: Exploration to Settlement Creation » Settlement design » 2021-04-10 13:29:26

RobertDyck,
regarding the Hillside Settlement 1:
Sounds great your concept and very nice pictures for 2005. I can't open the file type unfortunately, maybe you have another type? I would like to have a closer look.

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