Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

kbd512 · 2021-11-20 09:13:39

This is the initial technology set that would need to be developed, in order for metals to be mined from Near-Earth Objects:

Robotic Asteroid Prospector (RAP)

GW Johnson · 2021-11-21 22:42:28

Very interesting paper. Seems rather comprehensive.

GW

SpaceNut · 2021-12-15 20:25:40

GW Johnson wrote:

Aerobraking ** must ** be removed from all spacecraft design except as a last chance technology when all else has failed.
I think the truth of that or not depends upon the nature of the aerobraking. Direct entry-and-landing is quite a different scenario from aerobraking to capture into orbit. It also depends upon how big a delta-vee you are trying to dissipate on any one pass.
The heat shield for direct entry off interplanetary trajectories looks like the heat shield used by Apollo returning from the moon, more-or-less. For direct entry at Mars, you get in the way of the planet which then runs over you from behind due to orbital speed difference about the sun, while gravity accelerates you toward Mars. Depending upon your trajectory, speed relative to Mars at entry interface varies between about 5.6 km/s to 7.5 km/s.
Mars escape is only 5 km/s. You have to enter at a shallow angle to make this work without smacking the surface before any drag deceleration can occur, and still not bounce off into space to b e lost forever. It is tricky, and it it quite demanding on the heat shield, and on the structures. Several gees' deceleration are usually involved.
The same direct entry scenario at Earth return is similar, but more demanding. The orbital speed differences are such that you are trying to smack into the Earth from behind it, while gravity further accelerates you toward the Earth. Depending upon your trajectory, your speed at entry interface can range from about 12 km/s to almost 17 km/s. Earth escape is only 11 km/s. You have to enter at a shallow angle, but still not bounce off into space to be lost forever. In comparison, Apollo coming back from the moon hit the entry interface at about 10.9 km/s. It pulled 10-11 gees doing that.
The delta-vees for aerobraking are the entry speed less the Mach 3 speed for end-of-hypersonics: about 1 km/s on Earth, and about 0.7 km/s on Mars. That puts the direct-entry aerobraking delta-vees at around 4.9 to 6.8 km/s at Mars, and about 11 to almost 16 km/s at Earth. It was 9.9 km/s for Apollo coming back from the moon, and it is around 6.9 km/s coming back from LEO.
For aerobraking capture into orbit, you must get from entry interface speed down to your capture orbit periapsis speed IN ONE PASS!!! Fail, and you zing back out into space above local escape, to be lost forever. That periapsis speed is greater than low circular orbit speed, but still less than escape. I have not run the numbers, but I'd guess about 4.5 km/s at Mars and about 9.9 km/s at Earth, using 90% of local escape. That puts you into a very elongated elliptical capture orbit, with a very long period, and low stability against the disturbing pull of 3rd bodies. But, your periapsis is still deep in the atmosphere, so on each pass you aerobrake toward a low circular orbit down in the atmosphere meaning you are aerobraking pass-by-pass toward entry and landing.
Under those approximate assumptions, the first-pass aerocapture delta-vee requirement is interface speed minus periapsis speed. For Mars that would be 1.1 to 3 km/s, which is lower than the direct-entry delta-vee range of 4.9 to 6.8 km/s. For Earth, that would be 2.1 to 7.1 km/s, vs 11 to 16 km/s for direct entry. Those aerobrake 1st-pass delta-vee ranges are lower than the direct-entry delta-vees, yes, but not that much less. Actually, the higher end of each range is comparable to entry from low circular orbit, something we already know requires a substantial heat shield: 3 vs 3.6 km/s at Mars, and 7.1 vs 7.9 km/s at Earth.
You won't be able to skim the outer atmosphere and slow down by these numbers. You WILL have to dive deeper down to get the decelerations, which means you will suffer heating, and you will pull some significant gees. Earth's upper atmosphere varies in properties a little bit. Mars varies by a factor of 2. You have to carefully monitor Mars's upper atmosphere in order to calculate just how deep to go to get 1st-pass delta-vee reliability for aerobraking into capture orbits.
But for an orbit-to-orbit ship, it is Earth arrival that you have to size your heat shield for. And at 12-17 km/s entry speed, you must use ablatives; re-radiating refractories cannot work! Not only is there whopping loads of radiant plasma heating to contend with, that plasma sheath is essentially opaque to any re-radiant emission you might otherwise create. That happens at about 10 km/s, in any atmosphere.
GW

SpaceNut · 2021-12-15 20:25:46

of course the difference is for being able to place the ship into an orbit or to burn of a bill of speed before if intent is to land a more glancing dive versus a deep dive to burn off the greater amount of speed to be able to get into an orbit on its first pass rather than by multiple passes.

tahanson43206 · 2021-12-16 07:14:12

It is time to remind everyone what this topic is about....

This topic is NOT about asteroid mining. Asteroid mining is an important topic and it should have it's own topic.

This topic is NOT about slowing space craft with passengers in the atmosphere of Mars or any other planet.

This topic is dedicated to the proposition, first articulated in this forum by Void, that it is feasible and even practical to deliver non-living supplies to customers on Mars using direct impact as the delivery mechanism.

Prior to the excursion into asteroid mining, the members of the forum who contributed to this topic appeared to have arrived at a consensus that the technology is feasible, practical and cost effective, and that it would (and will) become a standard business practice in coming times.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2022-01-10 20:19:18

From most recent contest

An essential requirement for any human Mars exploration mission is a system capable of landing payloads of 10 metric tons or more on the Martian surface. Such systems could first be demonstrated by being used to deliver expeditions consisting of platoons of robots, including wheeled or treaded ground rovers, helicopters, airplanes, balloons, or other types of flight vehicles, and legged robots, including those in humanoid, cat-like, or insectoid forms

The issue is that the lander has a mass that is even greater than that when you add in all of the support stuff that makes that landing possible. With a current technology of 1mt on the surface being 15 times greater on orbit.

Calliban · 2022-06-26 09:37:57

We haven't discussed this topic for a while. One idea that occured to me the other day was dropping payloads into a gas filled tube. The tube would be at least 100m long. When an incoming projectile enters it's barrel, it breaks a laser beam, triggering a detector which then results in a valve opening at the bottom of the pit. Liquid CO2 sprays into the tube, evaporating and accelerating to very high velocity as it exits the tube. This exerts a drag which slows the incoming projectile to a velocity of a few hundred m/s. The projectile then impacts an ice covered pond at the bottom of the tube, which reduces it's velocity to zero.

tahanson43206 · 2022-06-26 11:51:05

For Calliban re #257

** That ** is ** almost ** at the Void level of creative thinking! Bravo!

SeachTerm:barrel design to decelerate ballistic payload safely

Because we are talking about inanimate payloads which can endure significant G force, it seems to me your idea is worth pursuing. The default is to recover the squished mass from a pit of regolith splashed up by the arriving package.

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-08-26 08:56:25

Moonshot: NASA prepares return to lunar glory with Artemis test flight
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/n … -rcna44674

South Korea’s first lunar orbiter on way to the moon
https://spacenews.com/south-koreas-firs … -the-moon/

but who will truly develop the first Lunar Spaceport and Moon economy?

Maybe groups or nations will go back to ideas yet unexplored. First ballistic moon transport with Canon, used for highly durable Low-Tech products, Chemical rocket or Mag Beam acceleration or a Large Truck-Train with an Ion Drive or the circular accelerator concept, maybe even a type of Solar Sail might work? Perhaps a very high speed Space Train/Plane Cargo Ship and resonably comfortable for delicate produce and the launch powered by nuclear electricity?

old article

Lunar mass driver: Why we should build a space gun on the Moon
https://www.spaceanswers.com/futuretech … -the-moon/

tahanson43206 · 2022-08-27 06:17:46

For Mars_B4_Moon re bringing topic back into view ...

Your post #259 includes:

Maybe groups or nations will go back to ideas yet unexplored. First ballistic moon transport with Canon, used for highly durable Low-Tech products, Chemical rocket or Mag Beam acceleration or a Large Truck-Train with an Ion Drive or the circular accelerator concept, maybe even a type of Solar Sail might work? Perhaps a very high speed Space Train/Plane Cargo Ship and resonably comfortable for delicate produce and the launch powered by nuclear electricity?

This is a good time to remind readers what this topic was about. Your quote above includes the key concept ... delivery of durable goods to the surface of Mars without using parachutes or reverse thrust.

The topic includes thorough discussion. The end result is that this idea, which originated with one of Void's creative ideas, would appear to be valid, and that a business build upon the concept would make sense.

As you (Mars_B4_Moon) continue your scan of the Internet, please look for items that appear to show awareness of the concepts of ** this ** topic.

Introduction of ** other ** opportunities to ** this ** topic is less than ideal.

What we need to advance ** this ** topic are details about the delivery pods to put payloads into the sweet spot as identified in the topic, where payloads can be expected to arrive at the surface intact, and to survive rapid deceleration in the Martian regolith.

Accuracy of delivery is a requirement. The regolith to act as a receiver needs to be chosen for it's role as a catcher's mitt.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2022-08-27 06:55:54

Thanks to Mars_B4_Moon, this topic is back in view ...

The current membership has taken Void's idea about as far as we are able...

The next phase of development into a viable business plan is to design the delivery pod so that not ** one ** molecule is lost or wasted.

While the regolith can be counted upon to provide a deceleration bed, the intention of this topic is to insure that every molecule carried in the package is recovered for use. The heart of a given delivery may well be electronics or other advanced manufacturing output, but the materials included in the delivery package can all be selected for their value to the Mars Settlement project.

For example, water may be included in the delivery package, with the intention of converting to steam at the moment of maximum deceleration, but that steam can be captured in an envelope designed for that purpose. And the envelope can be designed for use on Mars, although what that match would be is to be determined.

A requirement for this study is access to Flow-3D or similar advanced modeling programs, so a reader who might be taking college courses along these lines might pursue the development of Void's creative idea as a Master's program.

We (humans) are constantly (frequently) reminded of the validity of Void's idea, by the discovery of unexploded ammunition from a number of wars, and we are seeing fresh examples in today's wars.

A delivery package for Mars can be (and I expect ** will ** be) designed to deliver ultra-high-value cargo, high value cargo, and just plain useful material all in one shipment.

If there is a reader not already a member who would like to contribute to this topic, please see the Recruiting topic for procedure.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2022-08-27 07:07:21

As a further follow up to the return of this topic to view, thanks to Mars_B4_Moon ....

The traditional way of achieving rapid deceleration is to convert kinetic energy of the arriving package to kinetic energy of the receiving material.

An alternative is to store the energy of the arriving package in a storage facility, so that energy can be released later in a controlled manner.

The example that is well known at low velocities is the latching spring. The arriving package compresses a spring, and the compressed spring is automatically latched to that the arriving package is not given negative acceleration. The energy stored in the spring can be (and normally will be) released later in a controlled manner.

The challenge for a student who might wish to develop a business for delivery of non-perishable goods to Mars is to work out a "spring" mechanism able to handle the higher levels of stress that can be expected for Mars Ballistic delivery of supplies.

Automobile designers have been addressing the problem of rapid deceleration for some time, and (from what I understand) significant progress has been made.

The Mars Delivery system we are discussing in ** this ** topic would be a step beyond the automotive example, but it seems (to me at least) possible lessons learned in trying to preserve human life in collisions might be adapted to the Mars Delivery case.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2022-08-27 11:00:16

The moon is greatly different for this as its covered with very fine dust that is a foot thick or more in spots. Mars is not that way but with a landing site being prepared its now about the accuracy of site size as indicate we are not there yet with the Lidar landing system, but I am sure that it can get closer in time.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-01 10:38:55

The gun could work on the Moon. space gun, sometimes called a Verne gun because of its appearance in From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, is a method of launching an object into space using a large gun- or cannon-like structure. Marginal costs tend to be accordingly low, initial development and construction costs are highly dependent on performance, especially the intended mass, acceleration, and velocity of projectiles. For instance, while Gerard O'Neill built his first mass driver in 1976–1977 with a $2000 budget, a short test model firing a projectile at 40 m/s and 33 g, his next model had an order-of-magnitude greater acceleration after a comparable increase in funding, and, a few years later, researchers at the University of Texas estimated that a mass driver firing a 10 kilogram projectile at 6000 m/s would cost $47 million. Many proposals feature installing mass drivers on other worlds such as the Moon with the lower gravity and lack of atmosphere greatly reduce the required velocity to reach lunar orbit. Use of mass drivers involved transporting lunar-surface material to space habitats for processing using solar energy also, lunar launches from a fixed position are much less likely to generate issues with respect to matters such as traffic control. SpinLaunch conducted tests of their test accelerator in October 2021 while Space fountains might be built upon a large asteroid, the Beanstalk Stairway to Heaven a system in which a continuous stream of pellets in a circular track holds up a tall structure. A mass might also have hybrid tech, nuclear or ion and other tech could be considered a form of beam-powered propulsion a macroscopic-scale analogue of a particle beam propelled magsail.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/ … fountains/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar … en/376348/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/09/spinlau … ocket.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20170625000 … ents1.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20170505100 … ws7706.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20120722020 … Report.pdf

some previous discussion on newmars
Moon as a path, and as it's own thing.
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10074
Spinning Space Station
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2148
Industrial development on Mars
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7701
Plans for mobile base - on the moon...
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=3491
Jules Verne
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5835
Robotic Camels for Mars Transportation
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8823
Linear electromagnetic accelerators
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7297

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-24 16:11:26

Machines launching indestructible boxes of supply from other worlds to Mars

Callisto?

Did you know that Callisto is almost as large as the planet Mercury?
https://twitter.com/AllSpaceCnsdrd/stat … 2246921216

Finding a softer part to crash land your hardy material?

'The great Antarctic meteorite hunt'
https://caslabs.case.edu/ansmet/2020/02 … 2020-team/

One method might be to set up some kind of chemical pond substance, in the South Pole Meteroites are captured in the Snow perhaps some kind of liquid soil Waters on Mars or Comparing Gelatin performance to collected Hardy Low tech material.

older article

NASA Considering Rail Gun Launch System to the Stars
https://www.universetoday.com/73536/nas … the-stars/
Different technologies to push a spacecraft down a long rail have been tested in several settings, including this Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) System evaluated at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Engineers have a number of options to choose from as their designs progress

Looking to Mars
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/overview

NASA also continues to work with companies to address the challenges of living in space, such as using existing resources, options for disposing of trash, and more. Missions to the Moon are about 1,000 times farther from Earth than missions to the International Space Station, requiring systems that can reliably operate far from home, support the needs of human life, and still be light enough to launch. These technologies will become increasingly more important for the 34 million mile trip to Mars.
Exploration of the Moon and Mars is intertwined. The Moon provides an opportunity to test new tools, instruments and equipment that could be used on Mars, including human habitats, life support systems, and technologies and practices that could help us build self-sustaining outposts away from Earth. Living on the Gateway for months at a time also will allow researchers to understand how the human body responds in a true deep space environment before committing to the years-long journey to Mars.

China Callisto Orbiter
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1572710332455591936

NASA Academy website said a crewed mission to Callisto might be possible in the 2040s
https://web.archive.org/web/20120119170 … bethke.pdf

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-09-24 16:50:34)

tahanson43206 · 2022-09-24 16:31:19

It appears to be time to remind our members what this topic is about.

This topic is NOT about launching objects from Mars.

It ** is ** about Void's idea of landing inanimate supplies without parachutes.

If anyone desires to know how that would be done, the topic covers the procedure in some detail.

The mathematics is/was worked out by members who have the skill and experience needed.

What I am looking for now is/are signs of interest in employment of this supplies delivery process by major players, such as but not limited to FedEx, UPS, DHL and many other companies that deal in logistics.

Further work can certainly be done with computer modeling, to improve predictions of the kinds of packages, the kind of packaging, and the kinds of target terrain that would be suitable for this delivery method.

This topic is NOT about delivery of supplies to any other body than Mars, although it is possible there may be a business reason to make such deliveries.

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-24 17:32:42

Tahanson perhaps that post was directed at me, then maybe I should have better explained a sudden idea or vision which also paid respect to Voids ideas, I was puuting Mars as a central hub, thinking of setting up a multiple supply chain of Ballistic Delivery. When a ship arrives at a US Harbor it is not just from one place in Canada or one place in Japan or Spain, ships deliver from all over the world. Maybe they could deliver from all over the solar system. Let us imagine for a moment we set up a movable vectored tracks, moving guns, flexible lanes shooting supply across worlds a system in constant motion but zipping across the stars, a Power Reactor Power Gird and a Gun, there could be for example a Spin launch or some Railgun from the Moon a Gun on the Moon but what happens when it does not line up, your Suez canal is blocked, farm is near failure on Mars you can afford to loose some months but you must have those crucial supply. Many other route possible maybe there will be a shipping delay the Earth/Moon system and Mars are opposite sides of the Sun. When one supply is forced to take a rest another Supply will be backed up hat is when worlds like Ceres and Callisto might already have a supply line delivering back up, there are Jupiter Trojan worlds to consider, can manufacturing and ballistic deliver be done from these bodies. Your Nuke power your Space-Tank, your flying train trackers or Railgun always delivering. At the moment costs will be high, maybe DHL UPS would back away but companies like Space-X are giving the world tech that makes space access cheaper. AI Computers talking to other off world computers, planning months and years ahead fixing any possible supply chain gaps. I thought of Mars still as the central point for delivery but can not tell you of the economics or logistics but Saturn would be a long way to deliver Titan's hydrocarbons to Mars $3.9 billion is what Cassini Huygens cost, NASA's Clipper is $4.25 billion and ESA's Juice is 830 million euros, dropping off a supply chain gun and power source on an off world site could be expensive but NASA's Dawn mission was relatively cheap, it did two worlds in one and cost US$446 million, it dropped off at more than one world thanks to its Ion Drive, maybe some kind of mini reactor and AI robot shipping gun could be dropped on multiple worlds, the way Dawn used an ion engine pushed the efficiency tech to a whole new level, what if an efficient craft like Dawn dropped off powered Landers with supply chain guns?

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-09-24 17:48:18)

tahanson43206 · 2022-09-24 17:53:03

For Mars_B4_Moon .... re #267

Thanks for your (amazing!) creative thinking!

To (try to at least) help you along, as you build up this vision...

The packages you are sending from all over the Solar System need to be scheduled to arrive at very precise locations.

Each package is capable of destroying a habitat or potentially even an entire community if it is not handled correctly.

The mechanics of this system have been worked out in this topic. The details need to be added.

Whatever method us used to launch a payload package for ballistic delivery to Mars, that payload is what is of interest to the managers of this topic.

The package must be designed to navigate flawlessly both approach to Mars, and flight through the atmosphere, and finally arrival at a very precise location selected in advance to receive this particular payload.

It would appear that inanimate payloads may be shipped with some confidence of delivery intact, provided that the shipping package is correctly designed, and that the receiving surface/environment is correctly designed for the given payload.

As you (Mars_B4_Moon) visit sites on the Internet, it is possible you will run across someone (or a group) working on solving this particular problem.

The costs of ballistic delivery are likely to be lower than the costs of delivery of appropriate materials by any other method.

Flight planners are surely going to carry all the mass they need for a visit to Mars, for a very long time. They'll plan to deliver their payloads with retro-rockets, or with parachutes, or some combination.

The business opportunity I see, is for an entrepreneur to offer qualifying materials to be delivered to a customer requested site, using the ballistic method. There will certainly be costs associated with design of the delivery package, and preparations of the receiving surface/environment.

The bet I am making is that the competition between delivery methods (and companies) will provide a range of choices for customers to consider.

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-18 09:42:07

Startup SpinLaunch aces 10th suborbital launch with high-tech slingshot

https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-aces-1 … est-launch

The original idea for the Centrifugal gun would use a rapidly rotating disc to impart energy to the projectiles, replacing gunpowder with kinetic energy, a steam-powered centrifugal gun built by Charles Dickinson of Boston was tested during the American Civil War.

The original concept of the space gun, sometimes called a Verne gun got its name because of its appearance in From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne. Some proposals explored ideas to use electromagnetic techniques for accelerating the payload, such as coilguns and railguns, the ram accelerator is a device for accelerating projectiles or just a single projectile to extremely high speeds using jet-engine-like propulsion cycles based on ramjet or scramjet. John Hunter (born November 14, 1955) is an American projectile researcher, who developed the 1994 "supergun" Super High Altitude Research Project aka SHARP, Project HARP, short for High Altitude Research Project, was a joint venture of the United States DOD and Canada's Department of National Defence created with the goal of studying ballistics of re-entry vehicles, Quicklaunch is a currently inactive company attempting to use a type of space gun to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, Projected costs to orbit from John Hunter's team were $500 per pound ($1,100/kg).

As of September 2022, the SpinLaunch company has raised US$150 million in funding, with investors including Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Airbus Ventures, ATW Partners, Catapult Ventures, Lauder Partners, John Doerr, and the Byers Family

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ … ding-Round

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-10-18 09:53:14)

Void · 2022-10-21 11:08:53

I am not sure I understand this completely, but it is interesting: https://phys.org/news/2022-10-nasa-mars.html
Quote:

OCTOBER 21, 2022
Why NASA is trying to crash land on Mars
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Picture Quote: https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/20 … g-to-1.jpg

Of course, they want to cause instruments of use to survive the crash. But it is sort of along the lines of this topic, I think.

I am not sure about how they get into the atmosphere. They must expend a heat shield, I would presume.

I am wondering if something like this could "Crater" the regolith on top of some ice, on an ice slab, and somehow be able to do some analysis of the ice. Perhaps asking too much though.

Done

Last edited by Void (2022-10-21 11:45:24)

Void · 2022-10-21 11:47:06

Per the just previous post, this occurred to me: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia1760 … itude-mars

But the accuracy to get a probe into that ice may be out of reach.

The ice actually may be softer to some degree than normal regolith, as it was pummeled already by an impactor.

I do have a suggestion to add, tether a small bomb under the impactor probe, so that it creates an explosive cushion for the impactor. That would be the hope at least.

This could be tested on Earth, so see, if a little bomb exploding a small-time interval before the impact of the probe could provide a cushioning effect.

I have previously wondered if a method like that could be done with sand dunes. Of course, doing that on a sand dune, the probe might pernitrate out of sight, which would be good if you want to recover a material, but perhaps not so good, if it is a probe designed to gather data.

If you wanted to get really weird you could have a chain of small explosive devices dangling below the probe.

Done

Last edited by Void (2022-10-21 11:51:31)

SpaceNut · 2022-10-21 16:36:35

Much like all previous crashes it to get valuable data from known values of force and mass acceleration. The ability to control the event means all observatories of the event can be used to take measurements of spectral types. we have seismic sensors on mars that may still be working as well to make internal measurements of mars and depending on proximity to the rovers have on mars cameras as well to record what is seen.
Some of those would take the place of a sample return for data point of composition of mars.

SpaceNut · 2022-10-30 19:08:37

Science fiction that can turn into reality.
Future Mars missions might crash land on purpose

Why NASA Is Trying To Crash Land on Mars

tahanson43206 · 2022-10-30 20:11:30

For SpaceNut re #273

Thanks ** very ** much for posting the news that someone at NASA has been thinking along the lines Void pioneered in this forum.

A well designed crumple zone should be able to deliver the high value payload, and survive to become refined input to a smelting process on Mars.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2022-12-23 09:19:36

This quote came from the Insight Lander topic ....

tahanson43206 wrote:

For SpaceNut re #216
Void offers a word for this: Lithobraking
Void reported hearing this work in an Isaac Arthur presentation.
The image you provided in #216 shows an excellent example of "Lithobraking".
The goal of the Ballistic Delivery project is to achieve delivery of non-living payloads to Mars without the drama.
(th)

SpaceNut had written about Insight's observation of sound waves (regolith disturbance) when a small asteroid collided with Mars.

This topic does NOT presume to employ lithobraking for the entire deceleration phase of a shipment to Mars. Instead, as may be confirmed by study of the topic, it has been shown that modest aerobraking combined with lithobraking can deliver non-living product to Mars at reduced cost.

This remains a viable business opportunity for a forward looking team.

(th)

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#251 2021-11-20 09:13:39

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#252 2021-11-21 22:42:28

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#253 2021-12-15 20:25:40

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#254 2021-12-15 20:25:46

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#255 2021-12-16 07:14:12

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#256 2022-01-10 20:19:18

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#257 2022-06-26 09:37:57

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#258 2022-06-26 11:51:05

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#259 2022-08-26 08:56:25

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#260 2022-08-27 06:17:46

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#261 2022-08-27 06:55:54

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#262 2022-08-27 07:07:21

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#263 2022-08-27 11:00:16

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#264 2022-09-01 10:38:55

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#265 2022-09-24 16:11:26

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#266 2022-09-24 16:31:19

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#267 2022-09-24 17:32:42

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#268 2022-09-24 17:53:03

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#269 2022-10-18 09:42:07

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#270 2022-10-21 11:08:53

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#271 2022-10-21 11:47:06

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#272 2022-10-21 16:36:35

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#273 2022-10-30 19:08:37

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#274 2022-10-30 20:11:30

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

#275 2022-12-23 09:19:36

Re: Ballistic Delivery of Supplies to Mars: Lithobraking

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