NASA offers plan of how to get to sun

[Downey]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews

That would be some crazy stuff right there, need to get back to the old fast paced NASA, not the slow moving cumbersome elephant that is currently there, and now were working with the Russians.

[ShockBlast]

The Sun? It's about the Mars mission not the Sun.

[The Good]

Holy Roman Empire Batman. I was just thinking how absurd NASA's "new plan" is.

Mars makes a little more sense on the other hand, but I don't see it happening for at least another twenty years.

[Space Wolves]

Sun, maybe in a couple hundred years.......seriously...what is NASA THINKING!!!

[Downey]

My mistake,

*note to self make sure 100% of your attention goes into thread title next time.

[Jodius]

I clicked into this thread half expecting to see that the plan was to go at night

[Daeger]

I was thinking, why don't they try to build a massive space ship that would orbit around the earth and could travel to moon for example? I mean, if they can build large space stations, why not a space ship?

[Downey]

Because to the trekkies at nasa that doesnt make enough science sense.

[Treize]

It is quite viable...

[Alba gu Brath]

I was wondering there lol. Why the would we want to go to the sun.

[Viking Prince]

I was wondering there lol. Why the would we want to go to the sun.

Well, if we wait about 800 million years -- the Sun will come pretty close to us.

[Baron von Sky Hat]

The potential Mars missions will be awesome-cool, albeit massively difficult. It would have to be a huge undertaking, the round trip time couldn't be much less than a year in the best of cases, given that propulsion/fuel is always a limiting factor, windows for flights based on orbital configuration of the planets is very important; hence why probes always take years and years in some cases, to get where they are going. They carry so little fuel that most energy is gained through slingshots and such, with the engines for course alterations rather than actual propulsion as such. Manned missions have the problem that you can't really take that long with people on a mission, it would likely too strongly push the boundaries of what people can put up with.

The NASA plan sounds similar to a plan called Mars Direct from some time ago. A plan by which an unmanned Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) with a reactor to generate power, and capacity to create fuel from substances available on Mars (in combination with some unavailable substances taken with it) is launched first, arrives at Mars, and begins fueling itself.

Later on, the habitat vehicle with 4 astronauts launches with a trajectory to get it there fast at the cost of high fuel. I think the original plan stated that it would feature artificial gravity by attaching itself by a tether to the remaining bit of the upper stage of the original launch rocket, and having them spin around one another. Once at Mars, they land near the ERV and spend time there using the habitat vehicle containing food and similar supplies, and I think the ERV for power needs. They do the general tourist-y Mars things (coffee in cafes, taking pictures of the aliens, hotels and restaurants, science)(only one of those is true).

Once the mission is over, the upper stage of the ERV is used to leave Mars and return home. By having the ERV travel there first and separately, and generate its own fuel, it frees up the manned vehicle of space and payload weight that would otherwise have been used for the entire return vehicle and fuel for the return trip. It also means that the astronauts have a guaranteed way of getting back before even getting to Mars.

This NASA blurb seems to imply sending even more there in advance, including the habitat itself. All seems like a very good idea. With such a long round trip time, the more sure you can be that the astronauts will definitely have everything that they need, the better.

This plan seems to have inspired some of the NASA plans in that article. Or, at least, happen to be the same thing. This plan was from 1990 by a guy called Zubrin (at least, the core of it) and was quite widely distributed, so it's likely it was used as inspiration, but in fairness, a lot of it makes a lot of practical sense, so it might simply have been a type of plan that was inevitable.

Whichever way, it's very cool, the moon is one thing, having someone step out onto the surface of a whole other planet is even more incredible.

I was thinking, why don't they try to build a massive space ship that would orbit around the earth and could travel to moon for example? I mean, if they can build large space stations, why not a space ship?

It's plausible to construct a large spaceship in orbit in a similar vein to how Mir and the ISS have been constructed. However, thus far, I don't think anyone has considered there to be enough of an advantage to a single huge spacecraft of any kind to send somewhere, compared to the various disadvantages of assembling something like that in space. At some point though, I think it quite possible that that will be the route that would be best to take. Very long distance missions to the outer planets would require substantially more supplies and fuel, which likely couldn't be sent in advance as easily. That might necessetate a single larger space craft, one which might need to be constructed in orbit.

It seems a pity that there isn't more global cooperation on matters like this. It seems stupid that each space agency seem to be working for the same goals, but on entirely parallel lines (bar NASA+ESA, who seem to be working together). Admittedly for a number of earth orbit/probe projects there is a fair deal of cooperation. But, I mean, NASA, the Russian space agency, and the Chinese space agency, all seem to want to land people on the moon again (`again' for mankind, obviously only NASA actually already has out of those three), and Mars eventually. So presumably are all duplicating the same whole project in three versions. Think what they could all do together? I mean, other than presumably there being a fair amount of arguments from national differences. Obviously crazy stuff like `politics', `international diplomacy' and competition between those nations prevent anything truly globally cooperative like that from happening.

Well, if we wait about 800 million years -- the Sun will come pretty close to us.

Indeed! This article covers Earths eventual death by stellar engulfment rather nicely (http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4031), as the sun expands it ejects mass outwards, meaning planetary orbits will migrate outwards. In effect the Earth will be attempting to run away from the expanding sun..... Though according to this article, it looks likely that it won't make it, tidal interactions and deceleration due to the circumstellar envelope of material the sun will be pushing outwards will mean the earth can't get far enough away.
It's thought to be very much longer than 800 million years until the Sun is large enough to actually engulf the Earth (a good 5 or 6 billion years for that to happen), but I think that it's supposed to be something closer to just 1 billion years that the solar luminosity will increase to the extent that life as we know it on earth will be unfeasible, what with boiling oceans and evaporating atmosphere and such.....

[NONOPUST]

I want to be the first man on the sun!

[Downey]

I want to be the first man on the sun!

If you dont aim high your not aiming

[scottishranger]

Lol i was expecting this big new plan for a manned expedition to the sun. NOW THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE!

[Hakkapeliitta]

Obviously, the secret is that you go there at night.

Edit: and I thought I was being clever, while someone had already said that, or something. How embarrassing.

[Captain Jin]

I had a cool ass dream where I was part of an international military force that was sent along with the first astronauts to Mars to explore some ancient underground ruins and then it turned into a crazy scifi/horror movie type thing. Rad.

[Claudius Gothicus]

I had a cool ass dream where I was part of an international military force that was sent along with the first astronauts to Mars to explore some ancient underground ruins and then it turned into a crazy scifi/horror movie type thing. Rad.

So dying Event Horizon style is cool?

I think human race should keep on working on space travel and tech, after all we'll need a big space dump in some years.

[ivan_the_terrible]

It's easy to land on the Sun.

Just do it at night.

[NONOPUST]

It's easy to land on the Sun.

Just do it at night.

+rep