Darthan's Space Program: Mars

[Darthan]

Planet pack: Full Solar System v1.5 JTtA
Difficulty: Realistic
The custom parts used were from:
AEP.1.2.2
Electricity-v0.5
NeptunesCopycats
NeptunesHugeParts
NeptunesMisc
NeptunesTinyParts
Vanilla+

After placing a small colony on the Moon, sights were set on the next target - Mars. After a few test flights, including a small manned landing and return, plans were drawn up for the eventual colonisation of Mars.

The first step was to set up a comms network and a space station, more of a small orbital colony really, in Mars orbit. This will be followed by sending an number of rovers to the surface of Mars which will be monitored from the orbital colony to avoid light-speed delays. Then a large colony with manned rovers will be placed on the Martian surface.

Newer engine technologies are being used to reach Mars. The orbital colony makes use of first generation ion drives (Electricity-v0.5) and the rover mission will be the first use (other than test flights) of nuclear thermal rocket engines (AEP.1.2.2).

The new version of ANAIS with enterable target orbit altitude helped with the setting up of the comms network and placing the otbital colony in its target orbit.

Mars Orbital Colony

Launch


Orbital Assembly


Travel to Mars


Setting up the satellite comms network


Orbital Colony to low mars orbit

 

[Altaïr]

Nice. Did you calculate the resonant orbit yourself to set up the network? The good news is that your satellites shouldn't drift significantly over time: when ANAIS makes you circularize, it allows a small eccentricity for tolerance, but makes sure that the sma is the one requested, so the orbital period won't be affected.

 

[Darthan]

Yes. It is a 3:4 resonance with a target altitude of 3 planet radii (sma 4 planet radii) - enough to allow a little drift. Once ANAIS guided me close enough, I manually adjusted the orbit to be as perfectly circular as the precision of the display allowed.

 

[Darthan]

Mars Exploration (1)

With the Mars Station and Comsats in place the exploration of Mars can begin. The first step is to send a set of rovers with associated landers to the Mars station. Most of the landers can use aerobraking and parachutes to land so are quite light at just under 13 tons each. The Olympus Mons lander has to use a powered landing and weight in at a heafty 187 tons. The total weight of all 6 aerobraking landers and the Olympus Mons lander (plus a small personal transport and a couple of station tugs) comes in at just over 320 tons. This caused a bit of an issue.

The largest chemical only rocket in the fleet than can reach Mars low orbit is the 5R100 which it limited to a 100 ton payload. The 4R-I (ion upper stage) series can also reach Mars low orbit but the largest practical one is the 4R100-I otherwise the TWR is simply too low. The only one that came close was the 4R200-S with a Nuclear Thermal Rocker as the last stage. However, the thrust per engine is high enough for a 4R500-S upper stage to be practical.

Two possiblities were considered launch the 4R500-S upper stage to LEO dry, then launch fuel for it separately so fuel it in orbit. The other was to build a launcher capable of sending a fully fuelled 4R500-S upper stage with its payload to LEO. The second option was chosen so the 4R500-S launcher was built.

The 4R500-S launcher is the largest launcher in the fleet. At 33kt it is significantly heavier than the next largest - the 3R1000 - at 24kt. The 4R500-S first stage is so wide that it barely fits on the launchpad!

Design screen and launch


LEO Assembly


Journey to Mars Station

 

[Darthan]

Mars Exploration (2)

The plan is to set a rover down on every Mars landmark in the "Full Solar System v1.5 JTtA" custom solar system. Then commence the exploration of Mars controlled from the Mars station in low Mars orbit.

First two rover landings:

Olympus Mons (powered descent)


Utopia Planitia (aerobrake descent)


Utopia Planitia (landing)

 

[Darthan]

Mars Exploration (3)

Remaining five rover landings:

Arcadia Planitia


Gale Crater


Hellas Planitia


Jezero Crater


Valles Marineris

 

[Darthan]

Mars Colony

After the robotic exploration of Mars the final step in the Mars program is to place a colony on the surface of Mars and begin the manned exploration.

The plan is to launch the components of the colony and its lander into orbit and send them to the Mars station then use one of the tugs for assembly. Once assembled, the lander would land the colony on the surface of Mars using aerobreaking and parachutes, as was done with the rovers, but on a larger scale. The lander would then be flown off the colony. The colony would then release the manned rovers.

The lander and its parachutes are designed to land at any site other than Olympus Mons. The site eventually chosen was Hellas Planitia so the parachutes were a bit over-powered, resulting in a landing at a very gentle 3m/s . Also, the aerobraking phase only reached a maximum temperature of about 100 deg so heatshields were not really needed.

Design screens


Launch and travel to Mars


Assemble lander and colony


Landing


Remove lander and release manned rovers

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Design screens

damn boi that fairing
nice mission