New Mars Forums

John Creighton

Member

From: Nova Scotia, Canada

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 2,401

Website

Re: Mars Space Station?

If there's a problem justifying the costs of completing and operating the ISS, why not (slowly) push it into Mars orbit?  Add the necessary mods while it's here while using it for earth study, then send it on it's way.  It'd save a big chunk of $ down the line and one big step towards Mars will be near completion now.  Tom C. gtarhunter@aol.com

The ISS is kind of flimsy to deal with any loads produced by an engine pushing it and  is kind of heavy to push by an ion engine. Also if it is difficult to maintain on earth it would probably be more difficult to maintain on mars. However, it would be really cool if you could land it on one of mars moons and use the resources of the moon to supply the space station.

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spaceman9000

Member

Registered: 2005-10-14

Posts: 22

Re: Mars Space Station?

I think I know a better solution, this one I thought of this summer: you know when the rocket going to Mars discards some boosters into orbit to use for later (Mars Semi-Direct, The Case for Mars), well, I say we should discard a "Skylab II" into Martian orbit, put these together to build an early "spaceport" for trade and course adjustment if need be,
Or we could use Deimos and Phobos as mining facilities to build a much bigger and advanced station. This approach is similar to Gerard O'Neill's "Island One" concept for L5 orbit (The High Frontier). I say this should be used later, after the first 500,000 or so Martian immigrants land on the Red Planet and we have 10 or more mini-orbital stations.

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"The government that governs least, governs best"
-Thomas Jefferson

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,428

Re: Mars Space Station?

This image will help put the prospect into view as to the difficulty in moving the ISS. This one was take on August 6, 2005 by the Space Shuttle Discovery following the undocking of the two spacecraft as it pulled away.

This is the gallery page of the ISS images.