Search Did anybody work on a Mars Cycler add-on lately?

[Urwumpe]

I just found this paper with a large comparison of the many possible cycler trajectories and I thought it would be nice having one of such concepts in Orbiter

http://www.troymcconaghy.com/storage/AIAA_2002-4420.pdf

 

[Pquardzvaark]

Hm, it could be interesting to go with something like the DGIV if you want the life support time to be 'realistic' since they seem to more suitable towards a habitat than anything.

So maybe something like a space station module with propulsion attached in the right orbit? Sounds like fun.

 

[Andy44]

Buzz Aldrin wrote an article in Popular Mechanics about this a couple of years ago:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/2076326.html?page=2

Unfortunately, the link doesn't have any of the cool artwork that the print article did.

 

[Pquardzvaark]

Awesome, thanks for the article. Was thinking about it after reading this thread but didn't bother to look it up. I did notice near the top of the article a pdf of some artwork, but I guess that's not all of it. A nice place to start though...

 

[Pquardzvaark]

First off I hope I'm not posting too late for this to be considered reviving a dead thread.

Anyway, I keep finding this idea intriguing. I'd imagine to be semi-realistic it'd help with the radiation shielding issue since you only need one heavy habitat instead of one for each mission.

What I'm curious to find out how much dV is needed when the max turning angle isn't as great as the required turning angle. I guess from some requirements one could work back.

 

[Andy44]

Well, I wish Buzz was an Orbinaut. Siince he said he worked out the cycler trajectory, he could post the details on the forum for us, including a good initial state. Also, he could tell us how much dV is needed for the semi-cycler to return from Mars. He didn't write any numbers in the article, probably too geeky for PM editors, anyway.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, since eI kind of like this) we have to work it out for ourselves.

 

[Pquardzvaark]

I do wonder if Buzz players Orbiter in his free time. You never know...

Anyway, I've google and found some links and later on in the break I'll try to read them. Unfortunately it seems some of it might be a little technical for me. Regardless, I did skim through one and it does have some dV requirements: http://www.troymcconaghy.com/storage/AAS_03-509.pdf

It appears the most popular 'route' is S1L1 which is ballistic so it doesn't require any dV to stay in the trajectory and v-infinity for Mars and Earth are reasonable.

To work out the mechanics of this, is there any recommended reading?

 

[Urwumpe]

I do wonder if Buzz players Orbiter in his free time. You never know...

I doubt Buzz has free time. He never really retired. I am pretty sure, when he dies, one day, he will work on convincing the Big Guy up there, that spaceflight is good and humanity belongs there.

 

[Andy44]

Or he will get God to redesign the universe so that space travel isn't so frakkin' hard.

 

[Pquardzvaark]

Maybe Buzz and convince God to make sure the next messiah is Zefram Cochrane.

Anyway here's some artwork for some possible inspiration:
http://media.popularmechanics.com/documents/Mars.pdf

Well, I guess that's it. I do imagine all a cycler would need is a habitation module, docking module and some sort of power module. Is nuclear power really necessary when solar panels could do? After all, how high would the power requirements be?