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Some ideas for saving on mass...
1. Use regolith as ballast for larger machines or installations (e.g. gym equipment or washing machine) that require it.
2. Use the digger as the all purpose work horse on site. One vehicle for nearly all uses. But also have an lightweight electric trike (again weigh with regolith if it needs more stability) for exploratory and raw material missions - would have boot and trailer attachment at back.
3. You sometime see kitchen units with panelling. That's completely unnecessary. Should just be lightweight plastic mecanno-style assembly of rods. For kitchen work surface, could we not cut and polish some Mars rock?
4. Stools not chairs. Or no seating at all - just take inflatable cushions.
5. Gym equipment - fill boxes with regolith to make weights.
Any other ideas?
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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*You're taking a digger on mission number one? You'll certainly need one eventually, but it's a lot of weight you can save while you're still working out the basics about living on mars. A digger will necessarily be much heavier than a pressurized rover (unless your digger is a very small unpressurized thing).
*As for gym equipment, most of your need for it will be in space, where the weight is non-existent (or only 1/3 if you have a tether) and you don't want to launch more than you need anyway.... so take along a TotalGym instead. It uses elastic resistance rather than gravity and our astronauts all come back looking like Chuck Norris! Perfect. And for cardio you can use an air-resistance cycle or rowing ergometer.
*MCP suit rather than pressure suit
*Fewer internal walls in the Hab - has advantage of creating a much more open living/working space
*Would they really need a washing machine? After all, what clothes will they actually have? Underwear, casual hab clothes, space undersuit... surely you could just wash it in the sink, old-school style. Ditto dishes.
*Instead of giving the Astronauts nothing but MREs, take very large bulk packages of ingredients that can be taken from as needed, take along a few pots and pans, and let them cook their own meals. Helps them stay sane, too.
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Swoosh -
Well, an adapted mini digger will be sufficient to dig the trenches my proposal. They weigh about 1.5 tonnes on earth. We could probably produce
something even lighter with state of the art materials. Unpressurised.
We'll need the digger for some other duties: rock and boulder clearing on the surface. Also, for transport of raw materials e.g. oxygen bearing rock, permafrost deposits, and any metal bearing rocks we are able to exploit on the first mission.
The gym equipment? Hm. An interesting idea - if you really were having to skim the tonnage. But I feel it might be a false economy. Exercise is vital and
I remember people have got to recover some bone mass while on Mars.
What's an MCP suit? I'm going with 40lb a suit which is what NASA say they can achieve with their new design of suit.
Few internal walls? Well that could be looked at. Some are important for hygiene reasons.
The washing machine I could skim if necessary! You probably do need one in the lander anyway. Perhaps they can do a weekly wash there!
As for food, yes there may be ways we can reduce the tonnage. I am building in a margin of safety, to allow for complete unforeseen failure of the hydroponic facility.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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