New Mars Forums

If the Space Exploration Act of 2002 gets passed do you think it will use an advanced non-chemical propulsion scheme to accomplish some of it's goals? Or will it use a more standard chemical system? I personally favor a nuclear electric (nuclear powered ion drive) or a nuclear thermal propulsion scheme. I like the nuclear electric idea best because of its non fuel hungryness. You will need very little fuel to be lifted from earth thus cheapening missions past the first one immensly. These systems would likely be used only once out of the atmosphere due to low short term thrust on the nuclear electric and the danger, real or imagined, of contamination by the nuclear thermal. I expect that the craft will be assembled in orbit, lifted there by more conventional means. I wouldn't think conventional propulsion means would be nearly as attractive for a reusable interplanetary spacecraft as you would have to lift all that fuel from earth, or develope the means to produce it somewhere else. Other in space propulsion it could use would be solar sails, a solar thermal rocket, or nuclear pulse propulsion. What propulsion method do you think will be used, why.
I really hope the bill gets passed, many dreams will come true because of it if it does.

Usually you only get reports at the end of the experiment, that is after the data is fully collected and anylized.

The roof of a hanger holding some of the parts for the buran and its boosters collapsed while being repaired. One buran and some energia peices were in it at the time of the collapse. Hopefully no important information or parts needed for energia production was in the hanger. I assume all the stuff will be at least damaged and quite likely destroyed, or will be destroyed or damaged in the process of salvaging and repairing the hangar. Eight workers who were on the roof are missing presumed dead.
Space.com has the article.

I saw that on space dot com. Bizzare. If Russia really autherized the selling of a buran then they are even more desperate for money than they appeared to be before. $6 million, should be more like $50 million.

Nuclear pulse propultion is one. You basically blow up small (very small) nuclear bombs behind your craft which can be fission, fusion or a combination (fission used to make fusion). The only one with acceptable non pollution limits for in atmospheric use is a pure fusion bomb. This is hard but not impossible to make. The actual sanity of this scheme has been tested by several different groups. Look it up under project orion and/or daedelus (don't know if I spelled it right).
     Another option is beaming power to a rocket from the ground. You can send microwaves or light waves to a spacecraft and it can use them to power a propulsion system of some kind. You can hit a craft quite accurately with such a system. One system like this under testing uses lasers from the star wars failed missle defense system to bounce off a mirror aboard the craft. The mirror reflects the light to a point behind it superheating the air there and causing an explosion which pushes the craft upwards. These type of systems don't require the craft to lift its fuel (at least for much of the flight) and thus they are very cheap and effecient.
       There are many other endeavors for advanced propulsion. I suggest checking out  This site which talks about many of the ones nasa is working on.

You could concievably design an aerodynamic ultra thin solar collecter made of mylar which at certain times of day could focus light on a solar thermal jet engine (either tubo pump or pulse). This engine could then go into ramjet mode when enough speed was attained and rocket mode (using a carried fuel such as water) upon leaving the usable atmosphere behind. Such a structure would be hard to balance and need to be very aerodynamic but as far as I can tell it should work. I am not sure of its merits as a reusable vehicle but it could possibly be made cheaply enough to not need to be reusable. It would be hard to make it an X-prize contender.

It might be good to combine lines from some of the different poems to make the best possible entry.

Water vapor is a good insulator but not as good as CO2. Water also leaves the atmosphere much more easily in the form of precipitation. The earths magnetic field is created by the convection of molten metals deep inside it and is not generated by its oceans. Europa's magnetic field is caused (in theory) through interactions between it's electrically conductive salt water ocean and Jupiter's intense magnetic field. Mars has no such field to interact with and any ocean would (almost certainly) be much smaller on Mars. To introduce a significant Martian magnetic field would likely require reheating it's core or the construction of huge magnetic field generating stations which perhaps could utilize an ocean to help with the distribution of the field. Melting mar's core would likely require the detonation of huge quantities of fusion or fission weapons. The creation of a magnetic field would require a huge quantity of time and effort which might not be worth it. I am undecided.

I am interested. You could post it on a website, that would allow all the interested parties easy access to it.

Thank you very much. I didn't think of looking for an about new mars area. Rather foolish of me. Sorry to bother you. 

You would need some sort of heavy duty heat resistant plasic. Even with such a large volume and low weight it is going to be going hellishly fast when it starts reaching thicker parts of the atmosphere. I haven't done the math due to lazieness so I might be wrong, but before you assume your craft won't burn up and will generate enough thrust I would run the numbers with real atmospheric densities and stuff. There are some really heat resistent plasics out there and you probobly won't generate enough heat to really get destructive. Another option would be to have a giant ultra light plastic parachute to help you slow down before you hit the thicker air.

To simulate a different gravity you simply change the speed at which the cetrifuge is rotating. You could use a space based centrifuge to simulate the gravity found on the surface or in the atmosphere of any of the planets in the solar system. An interesting experiment would be seeing the affect of the 2.5 (I think) gs experienced in a hot air baloon in jupiters atmosphere.