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That sounds like a good idea...
Only how do you boost a cumbersome asymmetrical station
like that? Where do you apply the thrust? Wouldn't it
tumble and self-destruct?
You mean, send the ISS -- with a crew inside? to Mars?
It's certainly big enough to hold everything they would
need, and designed for long-term living. Cool idea.
It would have to be re-named into the Viking series.
By the time we get to Phobos or Deimos you will be
able to seal the tunnel walls with Astro-Tite ?
vacuum epoxy foam spray and won't have to worry
about the poor quality of asteroid material you
are digging in...
Every 20 meters or so you will install a Flexi-Bulk ?
light composite bulkhead with integrated hatchway...
shipped in by the dozens from Earth.
It will all be a piece of cake.
Now an intelligent farsighted business person would
be doing research now to develop Astro-Tite and
Flexi-Bulk and all the other convenient construction
products that will be needed for Mars moon base
projects, or even asteroid projects, in the future.
Well everyone knows that Phobos and Deimos are just billion-year-old
derelict hulks of giant alien battlecruisers... so there's got to be some
fuel or power source in them somewhere!
(If you don't believe me check out some of the close-up
photos of Mars moons--the drive nozzles and exhaust
vents are obvious... also battle damage from the
climactic fight which destroyed Martian civilization
in the Cretaceous era... :;): )
A full-fledged manned mission to Mars probably won't be practical for decades,
but some much simpler and cheaper prep work could be done now.
For example:
1. Boosting tanks of oxygen, fuel, or water out to Mars orbit,
where they would await the arrival of some future mission.
Presence of these stores at the destination would simplify
design and execution of a manned venture, since the
outbound vehicle wouldn't have to carry as much in stores
and would mass less, use less fuel, require less structure,
etc. This "pre-stocking" could go on for 20 years, building
a "constellation" of tankage and supply around Mars.
A dumb tank with a few valves (both English and metric,
of course!) isn't a billion dollar design project.
2. Sending out a robust communication satellite (like TDRS)
to live around Mars and handle the long-range comm
from future missions. That would reduce the mass and
complexity and redundancy requirements for manned-
mission comm gear and reduce the chances of a comm
failure between Earth and Mars during the mission. It
would also provide a good relay from surface bases,
or for unmanned probes sent in the interim.
3. As previously discussed here, Phobos and Deimos
are already in orbit around Mars, so they are obvious
platforms for way-station construction and supply depots
and large comm relays. Easier to dig out a comfy bunch
of caves and radiation-proof tunnels than to carry in all
the components of a "tin can" station for laborious
construction in free space. Also having a little gravity
is ever so convenient, stuff drifts down to the floor
eventually.
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