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Buzz Aldrin has been promoting this for some time.
It appears to me to be a strong improvement of a few things I read in old science fiction, and actually, the thinking of some other people as well.
http://buzzaldrin.com/space-vision/rock … rs-cycler/
From the start don't get me wrong. I think it would be great to send a set of people early to Mars, (With reasonable purpose, and ability), before doing this,
but suppose there are vast untaped resources, (I think there are), and a reasonable spacesuit, and reasonable methods to get people off of Earth, isn't this worth examination for a method to move large amounts of people from Earth to Mars to settle?
Done.
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Cyclers are cool but their neither the cheapest or fastest way to get to mars. Perhaps though in the long term they may be cheaper. They would certainly provide more comfort for people traveling to mars.
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Not the fastest, agreed.
Not the cheepest? What is? (Real question)
However what they show there is a interesting start to a situation where you don't go from point A to point B by the fastest method or the cheepest method, but it the spaceship is a world of it's own.
Technologies keep changing also, for instance heated graphite mentioned in one of the threads here. I would suppose that that might spew atmospheric gasses.
I wonder, does the existing concept of such propulsion include electric rockets and that efficiency, or advanced robotic resupply ships? Further, if resupply is eventually from other sources than the Earth, does that change the economic balance.
The Moon, Ceres, Vesta, Demos, Phobos, the upper atmosphere of Mars, Callisto.
I'm reaching.
However for civilians cycling spaceships have an advantage.
I am expecting as I think everyone would that the first people who go to Mars will be exceptional people. Physically, with youth, and a good survival sense, and a energy level that can sustain abusive circumstances for a prolonged period.
Later they will be more towards average.
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I'm not convinced that cyclers are necessary. Inflatables can provide considerable habitation volume in a low mass, with a capsule to provide a radiation shelter. The equivalent of the capsule will be needed anyway. A really huge cycler that grows the food and recycles all the wastes would eliminate the need to haul consumables along but at the cost of a huge mass and probably of a permanent crew that would have to float through space all by themselves for many months--more than a year--until they picked up another group of passengers. The cycler would also be problematic if the ferry vehicle had any one of several problems: (1) a departure delay that would cause it to miss the cycler; (2) problems after departure that would cause it to fail to dock with the cycler. In both cases, carrying along the inflatable, full life support, and full consumables would avoid the trouble. Launching two interplanetary transit vehicles more or less at the same time so they could provide each other with rescue capacity (the convoy approach) would be safest.
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The trouble with cyclers is setting up the initial resonant period in order to get the timing of orbit to orbit downa and with that is a large fuel loading and refueling problem to keep it going from point a to b...
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By repeatedly making use of the gravitational assist of swinging by the planets it appears the cyclers can be made to travel at arbitrarily high speed between the planets. Then in fact the time of travel can be days instead of months.
The problem for manned trips though is how do you get the crew up to these high speeds? The cyclers can still be useful for delivering supplies on standby as it were if there is an emergency where the crew on one of the planets needs a replacement engine, power supply, habitat, etc.
Another way they could be useful for minimizing spaceship size, is that the supplies, habs, propellants, etc. could use this method to get up to high speed, but the crew only liftoff in a small capsule so that a much smaller vehicle could get them up to high speed. Then the small capsule could link up with the much larger craft carrying all the supplies, habs, propellants, that reached its high speed by the cycler method.
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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By repeatedly making use of the gravitational assist of swinging by the planets it appears the cyclers can be made to travel at arbitrarily high speed between the planets. Then in fact the time of travel can be days instead of months.
The problem for manned trips though is how do you get the crew up to these high speeds? The cyclers can still be useful for delivering supplies on standby as it were if there is an emergency where the crew on one of the planets needs a replacement engine, power supply, habitat, etc.
Another way they could be useful for minimizing spaceship size, is that the supplies, habs, propellants, etc. could use this method to get up to high speed, but the crew only liftoff in a small capsule so that a much smaller vehicle could get them up to high speed. Then the small capsule could link up with the much larger craft carrying all the supplies, habs, propellants, that reached its high speed by the cycler method.Bob Clark
However, see here for some problems with this:
Developing the cis-Lunar economy and infrastructure.
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 53#p112153
Bob Clark
Old Space rule of acquisition (with a nod to Star Trek - the Next Generation):
“Anything worth doing is worth doing for a billion dollars.”
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