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Lockheed Martin unveils fully reusable crewed Martian lander

T

TacticalHotdog

Member
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NASA's goal to reach Mars is just over a decade away, and Lockheed Martin revealed Thursday how humans might soon walk upon the red planet's surface.

Lockheed Martin gave CNBC a first look at its new spacecraft prototype, which the company will unveil Thursday at this year's International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.

"This is a single-stage, completely reusable lander which will be able to both descend and ascend," said Lockheed Martin's Robert Chambers.

Chambers is a senior systems engineer at the aerospace and defense giant, helping to lead the Mars Base Camp project. The concept is Lockheed Martin's vision for what may come after NASA's Deep Space Gateway mission, which will begin in the early 2020s.

Starting with testing near the moon under the NextSTEP program, NASA aims to develop the infrastructure needed to send people to Mars. Lockheed Martin is one of six U.S. companies under NASA contract to build prototypes for NextSTEP.
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Built using technology from the existing Orion spacecraft, the lander is single-stage and reusable. Chambers says that developing a vehicle that could both land and lift off means "developing one less system," which cuts costs.

"We think you shouldn't invent anything new if you don't need to," Chambers said.

Chambers says his team plans to use cryogenic hydrogen as fuel because of the "water-based economy" they anticipate on Mars, where water can power both the orbital base camp and the lander. Lockheed Martin intends to send humans on a mission lasting around three years long: six to nine months traveling to Mars, 12 to 18 months on Mars and six to nine months traveling back to Earth.

"We designed a lander that can fuel in orbit, that has enough room to support a crew of four people for two weeks and then take off again," Chambers said.

This method means Lockheed Martin could provide NASA with the capability of flying three surface trips in one Mars mission. More importantly, Chambers says NASA could send a crew on the very first mission, as testing the lander unmanned would only require using one of three opportunities.
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Entry into the Martian atmosphere is a separate hurdle for Chambers' team. Lockheed Martin's lander would utilize "aero braking," Chambers says. He said the SR-71 Blackbird — the company's famed supersonic spyplane — provided lessons about the atmospheric heat loads different materials can endure when it flew for hours and hours under extreme pressure.

"We're looking at how we solved problems 50 years ago with the SR-71 and learning how we can apply those now," Chambers added.

While it is unclear whether NASA's Deep Space Gateway mission will include landing on the moon, Lockheed Martin said its lander would also be capable of a lunar mission if required.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/28/lockheed-martin-unveils-fully-reusable-crewed-martian-lander.html
Full presentation here: https://www.australiascience.tv/liv...rtins-mission-to-mars/?linkId=100000001250669
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Very cool stuff but Isn't the far bigger issue actually getting living humans to Mars from Earth considering all the radiation and other issues on the long journey?
 
E

Epsilon-delta

Banned
HStallion said:
Very cool stuff but Isn't the far bigger issue actually getting living humans to Mars from Earth considering all the radiation and other issues on the long journey?
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Correct.

According to 2013 data from the Radiation Assessment Detector on NASA’s Curiosity Rover, a roundtrip mission to Mars would expose an astronaut to 0.66 sieverts of radiation. That level is 13 times higher than what someone working at a nuclear power plant can be exposed to in a year.

In addition to cancer, cosmic ray exposure can also cause cataracts, circulatory diseases and acute radiation syndromes.
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Mars astronauts face a huge risk of getting cancer
 
X

Xe4

Banned
TwitchZeezbruh said:
Lets all act like Elon Musk isn't about to unveil the REAL rocket that will get us to mars in ~3ish hours.
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Yes. Let's not act like that, because we have no idea if that's true. I like SpaceX as much as anyone, but be careful your hype doesn't diminish some of the truly insane stuff Nasa and other conpanies do on a daily basis.
 
D

Dyle

Member
Looks neat, but it seems weird to make a reusable rocket for martian rather than lunar travel. How often could we expect to go there?

Dreams-Visions said:
those legs look frail as fuck.
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The legs are presumably just for stabilization, it looks like most of the weight would be carried by the central rocket cylinder
 
S

SuperBanana

Banned
The corporate space future seems cool now that the governments are all shit. Well...until we find life on a planet and kill it to drill for materials.
 
I

Ishan

Junior Member
Wasn't aware Lockheed Martin and other old school aviation private companies were big on this . Also I hope the pyschological aspects get studies to death 9 months plus 12 plus 9 . That's 2.5 years with 4 ppl ... Interpersonal issues will be huge . Copped up with even my best friend being even the most professional will lead to a ton of issues given how comms to earth will work due to light speed delays
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
SuperBanana said:
The corporate space future seems cool now that the governments are all shit. Well...until we find life on a planet and kill it to drill for materials.
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On the bright side, that's not an issue with any planet in our solar system, and it's going to take AGES, if ever, before humanity can reach outside that.

Even if Mars were full of valuable materials or something, it would be extremely expensive to the point of uselessness to harvest it, unless they were actually used and sold on Mars itself.
 
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