You are not logged in.
This topic is created to focus specifically on planning for rescue of all passengers and crew of a 100 person Starship(tm).
For SpaceNut ... before creating this topic, I ran a search of the archive for "rescue" and looked at every post. None were about this specific subject.
SearchTerm:RescuePod
SearchTerm:LifeboatSpace
SearchTerm:HospitalShip
The premise with which I'd like to open this new topic is that there is a need for a ship to be included in an expedition of Starships(tm) to Mars, capable of accepting the full 100 person complement of passengers and crew of a Starship which has become unlivable.
I'd like to open with a request for forum members to find references to the emergency life preservation systems that have been invented over the decades, such as a spherical balloon structure that I seem to recall was designed for rescue during the Shuttle period.
What I have in mind for this topic is the conceptualization of a system that could quickly evacuate all personnel from a stricken Starship, and move them safely to a waiting hospital ship equipped with sockets to accept all 100 rescue pods simultaneously.
Science Fiction authors have been thinking about this topic for decades, and the literature is rich with examples of all sorts of ideas.
It is highly likely that the creative and knowledgeable members of this forum who contribute to this topic will collectively build a sequence worth study by a mission planner, whether that person is associated with a public or with a private mission.
I would like to offer a nod to Dr. Zubrin, whose presentation last night on The Space Show concluded with announcement of a Mars Society competition to design a 1,000,000 person city on Mars.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
Safe Haven is another which was created for Hubble rescue and the ISS for if crew needed to come home or just to get out of the station for the what if happened onboard. For Iss is easy as there is little need for large suppies of consumables as you are most likely not going back into the ISS after having been required to leave it. The ability to move to other ports would allow for a crew to stay and not retreat home. So safe Haven and Rescue are quite different due to complexity of where you are and for how long can you survive under minimal retreat area to go to.
1. The trip to mars brings a habitat space with the ability to land on mars with oportunity to circle mars with the trips habitat or to be able to land it on mars as well as the mars crew lander. Return trip hoime from suface also relies on a habitat with earth landing capability with for either direction only the minimal retreat to the landing from habitat space to go into for a safe haven location while in transit. With an Earth return capability left in orbit for propulsion once we get off mars to go home.
2. Once on mars its getting from one base location into a safe location at it or to another once we have more and with this its about staying on mars.
Offline
Like button can go here
For SpaceNut re #2
Thank you for the reminder of the "Safe Haven" Shuttle "rescue" plan from ca 2004. Here is a link to an article about it. I had forgotten it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/us/n … ilure.html
However, that said, thanks for the opportunity to clarify what this topic is about, and how I hope it will develop over time.
A single Starship, carrying 100 passengers and crew, may make the passage from Earth to Mars safely and without incident.
The purpose of this topic is to plan for the unlikely but possible scenario that the Starship is damaged or injured in such a way that it has to be abandoned mid-journey.
In order to plan for this possibility, it is reasonable to anticipate the Starship would NOT travel alone, but instead would travel in the time-tested pattern of a convoy, in which one of the vessels would be set up as a hospital/rescue facility able to accommodate all 100 passengers and crew of a disabled Starship.
In this scenario, the Starship would include as part of the transit package a container fitted with individual space rescue devices, able to accept one individual adult or an adult and a child, or perhaps several children.
I am not seeing the individual Starship as carrying life preservation equipment as is required on sea-going passenger ships. Instead, the life preservation equipment would be delivered to orbit separately and attached to the Starship before launch towards Mars.
It is possible that the hospital ship might carry the rescue devices, in which case the Starship will need to carry a minimal life preservation system for each passenger and crew member able to sustain life until the rescue devices navigate over from the hospital ship to the disabled passenger vessel.
For the purposes of this topic, it is assumed management of the transportation enterprise will elect to insure a minimal level of survivability for passengers and crew, instead of gambling that nothing will fail over a two year period.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
The rescue or safe haven is also part of that virtual planning of real hardware conditions that we might need back up for. Its that backup which puts mission and the limits beyond what we have and how we plan for long term goals. That is why we try to preload a site with unmanned cargo and equipment in preperation for manned missions. It lessons the need to send that equipment with men which brings the payloads back toward being something that we can do. So the more you can preload for future the better for mans mission success when they are started.
Here are some of the proposed starship images
The cargo docking is part way down the body near the end of the arc for connecting multiple starships togther but this is not a docking hatch as with Dragon or others have. The center fin would prohibit it from being used in that manner and would need a linking tunnel long enough to exceed those fins lengths created and launched seperately to join to the cargo ship as the one crews on would still need supplies. No hatch is possible on the leeward side (dark area) as the heat shield can not have a hatch in that area. There is also no hatch possible at the nose for the same reason of heatshield can not have breaks or it will fail in that area.
Offline
Like button can go here