While the recent ESAS (Exploration Systems Architecture Study) Final Report revealed brief \u2013 yet significant \u2013 information on the Mars element of President Bush\u2019s Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), presentations have been acquired that show NASA was previously looking towards a Mars Transit Vehicle (MTV) that used Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) and utilised artificial-gravity (AG) for the crew. <\/p>\n
Both reports can be downloaded, with instructions at the end of the article.\n<\/p>\n
The current plan shown in the ESAS Final Report \u2013 published by NASAWatch.com prior to release to the general public later this month \u2013 revealed an MTV that didn\u2019t incorporate AG, while Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) was noted as the preferred option of transit. Final plans, however, are still a long way from approval, with a manned mission to Mars expected around 2030 at the earliest.<\/p>\n Two PowerPoint presentations show the level of research and intellectual concepts involved in potential solutions to manned missions to Mars, both produced before the appointment of Mike Griffin as NASA administrator. It is understood the concepts were mothballed, ready for any change in plan from the current ESAS roadmap.<\/font><\/p>\n The first, titled \u2018Artificial Gravity for Human Exploration Missions,\u2019 is dated July 2002 and outlines a masted vehicle, reusable for at least three missions, with a crew module at the opposite end to a nuclear reactor, along with two propellant tanks either side of a central pod. Called the \u2018Fire Baton\u2019 concept, the ship is one of three designs noted on the presentation \u2013 yet finds itself as the main focus in the bulk of the report. <\/font><\/p>\n With the whole vehicle rotating at four revolutions per minute, the benefits listed include the elimination of rotating joints, power connections, fluid connections, etc, while a major challenge was the vehicle\u2019s angular momentum would have to be continuously vectored for TVC (Thrust Vector Control). <\/font><\/p>\n The 58 page presentation noted the objectives of the preliminary engineering feasibility of AG, interplanetary human exploration spacecraft and identification of positive or negative system and mission impacts related to the AG requirement. <\/font><\/p>\n The second document is a 71 page presentation based on evaluating Mars transit trajectories, titled \u2018Earth-Mars Artificial-G NEP Architecture Sun-Earth L2 Architecture (3-Week Parametric Trade Study).\u2019 <\/font><\/p>\n Dated March 3, 2003, the report again centers around the \u2018Fire Baton\u2019 vehicle concept, with two studies evaluating timelines and transit routes for the Mars journey, titled \u2018NEP parametric mission design trades.\u2019 <\/font><\/p>\n Spaceflight history books (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The first study called for a Determination of cost (mass, time) required to depart from an Earth orbit and spiral to\/from selected Mars parking orbits for Earth return.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Study two evaluated the Sun-Earth liberation point (L2), the mission deploy\/maintenance of satellite constellation and a dress rehearsal for a Mars mission.<\/p>\n The animation<\/em> of \u2018Fire Baton\u2019 rotating, along with both PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded here: Specific forum thread on this article: <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While the recent ESAS (Exploration Systems Architecture Study) Final Report revealed brief \u2013 yet significant \u2013 information on the Mars element of President Bush\u2019s Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), presentations have been acquired that show NASA was previously looking towards a Mars Transit Vehicle (MTV) that used Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) and utilised artificial-gravity (AG) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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