As a former Special Assistant to the first Astronaut to be Head of NASA, and part of the post-Challenger fixit team, I've been very interested in the President's announced plans for NASA. I am also running for a seat in the US House of Representatives which runs from Houston to Austin. The Texas Delegation has been united in it's stance that his plan is putting the nation's human space flight efforts in jeopardy. It's also clear that having Houston's Johnson Space Flight Center Representative and Texas' two Senators from the "Just say No" party hasn't helped. The half of the President's plan that is right is to increase funding for the Earth observing and the robotic deep space exploration missions, and to move routine access to the Space Station to private companies. The problem with the human space flight mission is that it fails to have any concrete goal that excites the American public. I have a plan for that.
Let's move the Space Station from low Earth orbit to Mars orbit. Is it feasible? I don't think anyone has ever asked the question, or at least they never did before I retired from NASA. What's needed? First, a boost out of low Earth orbit, then a sustained boost to Mars orbit; and finally, a slowdown into Mars orbit. NASA has a lot of experience sending spacecraft on long trips through the solar system with relatively small boosters. It's been done by getting slingshot boosts around the Earth, Venus, and Mars. We sent robotic deep space missions to Jupiter and Saturn using booster rockets that were considered to be too small to do the job. The only place that can answer the question of feasibility is NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. These are the geniuses that have devised all those interplanetary slingshot passes and I suspect that the Moon could be used to give the Space Station a boost to Mars.
Remember, the Space Station is a spacecraft designed for periodic rocket reboost to a higher orbit. We have the Centaur liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen payload booster rocker and we have solid fuel payload booster rockets which could be used for the initial jump start out of low Earth orbit. Former Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz's Ad Astra Rocket Company already has a prototype Plasma Power "rocket engine" that converts electricity into a superheated gas that generates thrust. There are already plans to fly a prototype of this plasma powered booster on the Space Station in 2014 for reboost of the space station. A bigger and more powerful plasma engine using 200 killowatts of power from the space station's solar cells could power it to Mars. The reason we don't use plasma power on our rockets to Earth orbit is that they don't provide enough thrust to break free of Earth's gravity at the surface. The reason why it is ideal for interplanetary travel is that it runs continuously. A chemical rocket gives you a strong push for a short time, but it's all coasting after that. A plasma drive runs all the time so that the spacecraft is constantly accellerating to higher and higher velocities. Using a light gas as the propulsion medium gives a very high specific impulse--that means that the spacecraft can be accellerated to much higher speeds than a chemical rocket. At the Mars end, the Space Station needs to be slowed down for insertion into Mars orbit. This can be done with a combination of Mars gravity capture, chemical retro rockets, and running the plasma propulsion drive in the reverse direction once the mid-point of travel to Mars is reached.
I can't think of any other space mission that would excite the Nation and the World more than this. We have all the elements of Hollywood drama. Crew exchanges during the trip to Mars. Using that new observation cupola in orbit around Mars. Using the Space Station as a base for exploration of Mars. It will take years, but be exciting at every step of the way We will know the purpose of every element we devolop. We need to move the plasma drive from prototype to flight hardware. We need a rocket and crew transfer module to do crew exchanges in transit to mars, and after we arrive. We need a resupply rocket to keep the Mars orbiting Space Station stocked. We need a Mars surface rocket to get crews to and from the Space Station. Let's do exactly what the President has proposed--let private industry do the routine flights to low Earth orbit and let NASA concentrate on advanced technologies and go to Mars!
We've seen this movie a hundred times. Now, let's live it for real. I used to speak to student groups about NASA's efforts and I have seen the power of such dreams to inspire our young people. What's the alternative? With no changes, it will be only a few years before we abandon the Space Station to allow it to fall into the ocean, because whatever gains we see from it will be far outweighed by the costs to keep it in orbit. It's time to dream again. www.ankrum2010.comActBlue Contributions
