Mars Frontier Novel - New web location

Rxke · 2004-04-12 00:10:05

RobS, be sure to update those links on the NewMars site, too... Last comment i read there was somebody asking when it wwould continue, not knowing it was posted here...

(Off to read second part)

RobS · 2004-04-15 22:09:08

I'm not sure how to get the New Mars links changed, but I have gotten two other links updated, and Google has now found my site.

I've also uploaded the equipment appendix to volume 1. I'll upload chapters 2 and 3 of volume 2 over the weekend.

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-04-19 08:06:05

I've now uploaded chapters 2 and 3 of volume 2. They are here:

[http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier/2/]http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier/2/

Also, I have corrected an error that was caused by my lack of a good up to date map of Mars. The landing site is Aurorae Chaos, not Aureum Chaos. The later is a real chaotic terrain; the former is a chaotic valley that is the easternmost member of the Marineris system. I haven't chosen Aurorae for purely scientific reasons: I chose it partly because the scenery is dramatic. But there are good reasons to put a base in the eastern Mariner valleys; it's a low area, it has excellent access to some of the most dramatic geology in the solar system (Marineris) and has an excellent exist route to Chryse and from there to the rest of the planet. I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that a road can be built outward to the south as well. Certainly, it should be possible to build northward toward Simud, across to Tiu and Ares, and then southward up Ares toward Argyre.

-- RobS

Rxke · 2004-04-19 11:34:51

RobS, do you have drawings, sketches, anything... about the 'floor-plan' of the base? I tried to draw the layout of the different habs, greenhouses, m/f plants, locks,... but i get confused with their 'interlockings'...

BTW the well, doubling as an 'hot water accu' they made, is that your idea? (pretty neat idea for an emergency-backup system)

RobS · 2004-04-19 18:57:42

The idea of using the water well as a thermal well and store heat underground was my idea for Mars. But in the 1970s and 1980s there were articles about solar heating for houses that included a few tonnes of rock in the basement to store a few days' heat for cloudy days. So it isn't completely my idea.

I have paper drawings of the outpost made with pencil and pen, but I don't know how to make them in a computer. Any suggestions? I'd like to be able to make Powerpoint slides or something. I'd like to be able to make drawings of all the vehicles as well, but I have zero artistic ability!

-- RobS

Rxke · 2004-04-19 22:18:14

You could scan them in b&w and compress them to get small files, and put them online, have some coffee-stains an wrinkles added for that 'first drawing on a napkin' effect ...:;):

If you're not used to us e a drawing program, it'll take *a lot* of time to do it 'properly' so i would not bother unless you're really determined...

RobS · 2004-04-19 23:59:04

Here's a crude map I just made using MS Paint:

Rxke · 2004-04-20 12:48:22

Thank you!

(Now i understand the 'concourse' the crew takes around the facility (inside)

Makes me want to start up a 3D program right away!

(Don't have time for that, now, sadly...) (and skills)

RobS · 2004-04-23 19:46:04

I've added two more chapters to the second volume:

http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier/2/]http:// … rontier/2/

Any suggestions about the horrendously red color of my novel's main page at http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier]http://rsm … rsFrontier ? I'd like something more subtle, but couldn't find anything suitable.

Note the chapters now come with descriptions on the table of contents. The Rocket Company does this; a nice touch.

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-04-28 23:18:03

I've added chapters 6 and 7 to volume 2; see the link in the posting above.

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-05-06 23:13:48

I've just put up chapters 8 and 9 to volume 2. I'll put up two more chapters a week for the next three weeks, and by the end of May all of volume 2 will be posted.

-- RobS

http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier/2]http://r … Frontier/2

RobS · 2004-05-15 01:19:12

Chapters 10 and 11 have now been added. I have 12 and 13 ready and will get them up in a few days.

-- RobS

Rxke · 2004-05-15 04:23:42

Great job. I just love all the descriptions of what could be possible on the ground, engineering-wise, with pretty minimal initial hardware...

The well-heat'battery' and now gas-reserve... Great!
Love the new outside algae/fishpond idea too.

22 people on Mars... You could start doing serious things, with such a workforce...

RobS · 2004-05-15 22:14:34

I have been having a lot of fun imagining what can be done as the Mars population grows. The reusable transportation system in particular will keep getting larger. The interplanetary habs are reuseable, so if you add a pair of habs and one reusable Mars shuttle every four years, you can fly 8 to 10 more people to Mars. Initially one needs a Mars shuttle for every Ihab, but once you have enough, you need a shuttle every two, then every three, Ihabs; you just need the fuel manufacturing capacity on the Martian surface to refuel the vehicle and send it back up to get another load of people and cargo. So the system gets cheaper all the time, especially once they use the automated cargo vehicles that fly cargo to Mars orbit to fly argon and methane back to Earth (they don't need to fly much oxygen, because there's excess oxygen production capacity on the moon).

-- RobS

Rxke · 2004-05-17 01:34:20

Urg... Looks like the thread dedicated to Mars24 is broken...

I posted a questiion there:

given a lot of people don't like MarsDirect because it is too 'lightweight' for real settlement, wouldn't it be possible to 'marry' both scenarios into one?
Several MD missions to get things started, following a more comprehensive M24 scenario... M24 needs some initial setup in L1 etc, MD does not... but a lot of hardware could be interchangeable for both scenario's, so developing MD in tandem with M24 could make a sum, bigger than MD and M24 alone...

That way you'd already have a significant amount of hardware on the ground, making the first M24 missions easier to get off... Concentrating on geting the 'support' structure in LEO to L1.
Problem: MD needs a heavy launcher, wich at the moment is nonexistant...

I'm asking this because of the new developments: the talks between ESA and RSA... The Russians have the moxy, some spare hardware lying around and a lot of experience with manned flights, on a very tight budget... ESA has (some) money... Could they do this on what we would see as a shoestring budget? Would it be feasible to resurrect the Russian heavy-lift Energya? Could they ship it to Guyana?

The Russians would surely be 'crazy' enough to ride the MD missions, ESA might be more timid...

Yup, shoot me, but i lost most of my faith towards NASA...

RobS · 2004-05-17 22:06:40

I'll set up another Mars-24 thread, I guess. I want to get the plan on the web first.

Mars-Direct and Mars-24 would include some overlap of equipment, but also a lot of extra development. One needs a big booster, the other doesn't. One uses a surface hab, the other doesn't. Both use vehicles that lift off the martian surface, but they're different sizes.

I suppose the best way to combine them would be to develop Mars Direct, add solar-ion propulsion to get the 130 tonnes of heavy lift cargo to Lagrange, then create a Mars-130 (in other words, a Mars plan that would involve much larger cargos). Another solution would be to create a booster in the 80 tonnes to LEO range and use solar-ion to get it to Lagrange. The big problem I see with that is that one would need a solar-ion tug with about 2000 kilowatts of power output and most people seem uncertain they can build one that big right now.

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-05-21 22:09:26

Chapters 12 and 13 of the novel are now posted, and they're pretty important! In a few days I'll post the last two chapters, then we can think about volume 3.

http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier]http://rsm … rsFrontier

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-05-26 00:59:41

I just added the last two chapters of volume 2. Volume 3 won't start until early July, as I will be in Europe the entire month of June. It'll be a good chance to reread and revise volume 3 anyway.

-- RobS

RobS · 2004-07-18 00:51:45

I have just posted the first four chapters of Volume 3 on the web at this address:

http://rsmd.net/MarsFrontier/3/titlepag … lepage.htm

I have also updated all of volume 1. The changes I made were chiefly to the surface transportation system; I have replaced the "van" with a "truck" plus an attachable "camper." I will make a similar update to volume 2 in a few days (I've changed the text in Word, but not in HTML yet).

Enjoy. I may move along a bit faster posting the novel, as I have a lot of catching up to do.

-- RobS

Rxke · 2004-07-18 05:23:21

Weird, RobS...
Before falling asleep, i was thinking about your plans, and roughly calculating how fast an outpost would expand into a 'real' settlement, with two-years increments of eight people. This morning, I fire up my old trusty and see the third part of the novel.

The beginning had me going back to almost the same situation with the launch of Cassini. When i was also quite vehemently anti-nuclear at that time, i thought the protestors were totally ignorant. (lenghty discussion about my beliefs then how power-reactors were not managed properly-safely, but Cassini's nuclear package was...)

Like the idea of the Earthly volunteers, mapping for the unmanned rovers. A bit like the 'Marsclickers' project, wich was great fun AND delivered meaningful data, IMO...

Ian Flint · 2004-07-20 18:29:13

Just had to bump this thread up so I wouldn't have to dig through the archives to finish reading it.

Good story!

RobS · 2004-07-24 00:40:25

Chapters 5 and 6 have now been added to the website.

-- RobS

Morris · 2004-07-24 07:41:31

Technologically, the novel uses a version of the "Mars 24" technology I have posted about elsewhere.

Rob,

Could you tell us the forum/topics in which you posted the "Mars 24" technology? I am new to New Mars and there is a * lot * here to search through. Or does the board have a search engine beyond the topic tracker that I don't know about?

Rxke · 2004-07-24 11:36:46

the link is somewhere in this topic, and i added it it the second post

(go to the '1' in this topic, see my reply, where it says "all chapters here")

Morris · 2004-07-24 12:02:43

the link is somewhere in this topic, and i added it it the second post
(go to the '1' in this topic, see my reply, where it says "all chapters here")

Thanks much!

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