Vastitas Borealis based mission

Quaoar · 2014-03-20 09:34:38

A well known water source has a big value for a Mars mission: ISPP can be done without bringing liquid hydrogen from Earth, and astronaut can bring only dry food, saving a lot of mass that can be used for scientific payload.
At the moment, exlcuding polar ice caps, the only known source of wather is the ice lake in Vastitas Borealis

(there are some known buried glaciers at mid latitudes, but we still don't know if the ice is too deep to be reached by the unmanned ERV hardware or not).

Ice Lake is about 70° N of latitude, so a mission will experience a cold winter. But the winter, in northen emisphere, is only four months, so I think may be a good trade to cope with four months of winter and having in exchange all the water we want (consider we have a 100 KW nuclear reactor to keep warm the habitat): rover can have fuel in abundance enhancing exploration range and with the mass saved, we can bring even two or three hoppers, that astronauts can use to go souther douring winter, exploring multiple sites in a single mission.

Even the safety will be enhenched: dry food is light, so the stocks may be enough even for 5 years, so if ERV fails to take off, astronauts can go home with the second ERV in the next launch window.

Last edited by Quaoar (2014-03-20 09:39:56)

SpaceNut · 2014-03-20 18:26:34

The un-named crater is centred at 70.17º North latitude and 103.21º East longitude. While it is still being observed from orbit there is no mission even for the next decade or better on the table. That said what would a private designed mission require before men can even think of landing there to set up shop. The crater is from what I have read is 35km wide and from the rim 2 km deep.

First up would be the design of a lander and rover to explore the geology, chemistry, drill into the surface, collect radiation as well as temperature data and finally to get a respective quantitative measurement of the water that is neccessary for man to survive.

Since we know that solar can work up to a point we might want multiple rovers to be used to expedite the coverage of the crater in a shorter period of time but if we need an RTG source then we need a more simplified version of MSL to do the job.

Second question is can we do a hole in one to landing in this creator or will we need a beacon to land first to allow for a more pinpoint landing.

Third do we do multiple launches to get these researchers to the crater or can we do a one shot launch with ..hear the groan ..SLS ... rather than a privately funded project which would then look to the cheapest but by doing so means that the rovers & landers would need to be made even smaller.

Quaoar · 2014-03-21 02:38:47

Having a certain source of water, even a sample return mission will be more simple. An ice sample may be a very good medium for detecting microbic life.
Wich is the precision range of a landing?

Last edited by Quaoar (2014-03-21 08:14:40)

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#1 2014-03-20 09:34:38

Vastitas Borealis based mission

#2 2014-03-20 18:26:34

Re: Vastitas Borealis based mission

#3 2014-03-21 02:38:47

Re: Vastitas Borealis based mission

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