Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration

Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780309684804
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration identifies primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for developing and demonstrating space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to future exploration missions. This report presents key milestones and a top-level development and demonstration roadmap for performance nuclear thermal propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion systems and identifies missions that could be enabled by successful development of each technology.

Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration

Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780309684804
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration identifies primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for developing and demonstrating space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to future exploration missions. This report presents key milestones and a top-level development and demonstration roadmap for performance nuclear thermal propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion systems and identifies missions that could be enabled by successful development of each technology.

Surface Nuclear Power for Human Mars Missions

Surface Nuclear Power for Human Mars Missions PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description


Priorities in Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion

Priorities in Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and Propulsion PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309180104
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
In 2003, NASA began an R&D effort to develop nuclear power and propulsion systems for solar system exploration. This activity, renamed Project Prometheus in 2004, was initiated because of the inherent limitations in photovoltaic and chemical propulsion systems in reaching many solar system objectives. To help determine appropriate missions for a nuclear power and propulsion capability, NASA asked the NRC for an independent assessment of potentially highly meritorious missions that may be enabled if space nuclear systems became operational. This report provides a series of space science objectives and missions that could be so enabled in the period beyond 2015 in the areas of astronomy and astrophysics, solar system exploration, and solar and space physics. It is based on but does not reprioritize the findings of previous NRC decadal surveys in those three areas.

NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration

NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration PDF Author: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
This document communicates NASA’s strategy and progress to learn about the Red Planet, to inform us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet. Together with NASA’s partners in academia and commercial enterprises, NASA’s vision is to pioneer Mars and answer some of humanity’s fundamental questions: • Was Mars home to microbial life? Is it today? • Could it be a safe home for humans one day? • What can it teach us about life elsewhere in the cosmos or how life began on Earth? • What can it teach us about Earth’s past, present, and future?

Humans to Mars

Humans to Mars PDF Author: David S. F. Portree
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Space flight to Mars
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description


Safe on Mars

Safe on Mars PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309169593
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
This study, commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), examines the role of robotic exploration missions in assessing the risks to the first human missions to Mars. Only those hazards arising from exposure to environmental, chemical, and biological agents on the planet are assessed. To ensure that it was including all previously identified hazards in its study, the Committee on Precursor Measurements Necessary to Support Human Operations on the Surface of Mars referred to the most recent report from NASA's Mars Exploration Program/ Payload Analysis Group (MEPAG) (Greeley, 2001). The committee concluded that the requirements identified in the present NRC report are indeed the only ones essential for NASA to pursue in order to mitigate potential hazards to the first human missions to Mars.

Mars

Mars PDF Author: Viorel Badescu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642036295
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 716

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Book Description
th th Mars, the Red Planet, fourth planet from the Sun, forever linked with 19 and 20 Century fantasy of a bellicose, intelligent Martian civilization. The romance and excitement of that fiction remains today, even as technologically sophisticated - botic orbiters, landers, and rovers seek to unveil Mars’ secrets; but so far, they have yet to find evidence of life. The aura of excitement, though, is justified for another reason: Mars is a very special place. It is the only planetary surface in the Solar System where humans, once free from the bounds of Earth, might hope to establish habitable, self-sufficient colonies. Endowed with an insatiable drive, focused motivation, and a keen sense of - ploration and adventure, humans will undergo the extremes of physical hardship and danger to push the envelope, to do what has not yet been done. Because of their very nature, there is little doubt that humans will in fact conquer Mars. But even earth-bound extremes, such those experienced by the early polar explorers, may seem like a walk in the park compared to future experiences on Mars.

Reducing the Costs of Space Science Research Missions

Reducing the Costs of Space Science Research Missions PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309058295
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description


Radioisotope Power Systems

Radioisotope Power Systems PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309138574
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
Spacecraft require electrical energy. This energy must be available in the outer reaches of the solar system where sunlight is very faint. It must be available through lunar nights that last for 14 days, through long periods of dark and cold at the higher latitudes on Mars, and in high-radiation fields such as those around Jupiter. Radioisotope power systems (RPSs) are the only available power source that can operate unconstrained in these environments for the long periods of time needed to accomplish many missions, and plutonium-238 (238Pu) is the only practical isotope for fueling them. Plutonium-238 does not occur in nature. The committee does not believe that there is any additional 238Pu (or any operational 238Pu production facilities) available anywhere in the world.The total amount of 238Pu available for NASA is fixed, and essentially all of it is already dedicated to support several pending missions-the Mars Science Laboratory, Discovery 12, the Outer Planets Flagship 1 (OPF 1), and (perhaps) a small number of additional missions with a very small demand for 238Pu. If the status quo persists, the United States will not be able to provide RPSs for any subsequent missions.

The Case For Mars

The Case For Mars PDF Author: Robert Zubrin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471109887
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream; the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with illustrations, photographs, and engaging anecdotes. The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars; a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.