Human Missions to Mars

Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet

A mission to send humans to explore the surface of Mars has been the

ultimate goal of planetary exploration since the 1950s, when von Braun

conjectured a flotilla of 10 interplanetary vessels carrying a crew of at

least 70 humans. Since then, more than 1,000 studies were carried out

on human missions to Mars, but after 60 years of study, we remain in the

early planning stages. The second edition of this book now includes an

annotated history of Mars mission studies, with quantitative data wherever

possible.

Retained from the first edition, Donald Rapp looks at human missions

to Mars from an engineering perspective. He divides the mission into a

number of stages: Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit (LEO); departing from

LEO toward Mars; Mars orbit insertion and entry, descent and landing;

ascent from Mars; trans-Earth injection from Mars orbit and Earth return.

For each segment, he analyzes requirements for candidate technologies.

In this connection, he discusses the status and potential of a wide range

of elements critical to a human Mars mission, including life support

consumables, radiation effects and shielding, microgravity effects, abort

options and mission safety, possible habitats on the Martian surface and

aero-assisted orbit entry decent and landing. For any human mission to

the Red Planet the possible utilization of any resources indigenous to

Mars would be of great value and such possibilities, the use of indigenous

resources is discussed at length. He also discusses the relationship of lunar

exploratio

n to Mars exploration.

Detailed appendices describe the availability of solar energy on the Moon

and Mars, and the potential for utilizing indigenous water on Mars.

The second edition provides extensive updating and additions to the first

edition, including many new figures and tables, and more than 70 new

references, as of 2015.