Re: ISS as Mars vehicle

From: Matthew Montchalin (chalin_at_aracnet.com)
Date: 12/20/04 

To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:09:47 -0800

Joann Evans wrote:
|Matthew Montchalin wrote:
|>
|> Jeff Findley wrote:
|> |<Cray74@gmail.com> wrote in message
|> |news:1102947469.283431.146290@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
|> |>
|> |> Kent Paul Dolan wrote:
|> |> > But, is it strong enough to survive being shoved?
|> |>
|> |> The ISS is regularly shoved by its own rockets, the shuttle, and
|> |> resupply vessels.
|> |
|> |Tiny little "shoves" to boost its orbit by a few miles. I have a
|> |gut feeling that "shoves" of this magnitude would take a *long* time
|> |to get ISS to Mars.
|>
|> What's wrong with a 50 year one-way trip?
|
|
|How much technology do you know, that will function (or remain
|dormant, and 'wake up' fully functional) for 50 years? Espically
|the mechanical stuff?

I expect the electronics to be ready for massive overhauling once
it arrives in the Martian high orbit. As for sticky door hinges,
that remains to be seen. Do you think the metal will fuse together
after 50 years? I've heard that some metals tend to deform under
a sustained load, and this tendency is heightened with higher
temperatures. But if you induce a spin on the ISS, just before
you give it that last nudge to Mars, the metal should not be
exposed to such temperature extremes that the metal will deform
and fuse.

| In fifty years, it might be greeted upon arrival by tourists at the
|first Mars theme park....

A manned mission to Mars makes more sense if some habitable cabins are
deployed in a high orbit there first.

| ('Generation Travel' interstellar flights suffer from the same
|problem...an astounding need for reliability where re-supply is
|impossible, and a need to not use flight times so long, that technology
|development in the interim doesn't produce ships that get to the
|destination ahead of you...

I don't consider the ISS suitable for habitation on a 50 year trip
to Mars, simply that outfitting it before and after the trip, is
the way to do it. I'm not in a hurry, and I don't think you are
either.