Hitch hike to Mars inside an asteroid

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Makes me think of using mass drivers to fine tune the asteroids trajectory.
One problem that occurs to me is it would make it more difficult to spin the craft to provide some 'gravity'.
I'd like to see a NEA rendevous as a next step after a moon presence, which would fit nicely as a precursor to this strategy.

Hum,
it would be a bummer if you missed your stop.

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

How do you get back? Wait for another asteroid??

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

A little like the Mars cycler of Edwin Aldrin ? So may be we can christian it a Cycloid ?

Hum,
they could name it after the greek, hemer - to tame...

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

Well, I for one will not still still for that!

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

It's a student project, not a serious study.

The reality is:

You first have to wait for your asteroid - suitable asteroids come by much more rarely than the 26 month Mars window.

Then you have to match orbits with it - which requires much more dV than a even moderate energy Mars transfer orbit.

You then have to rendezvous with Mars - more dV

It would be better to expend all that propellant to make a faster Mars transfer.

BTW You have include a whole lot of machinery to carry out zero gravity excavation - make that a whole new technology.

All this was examined and rejected in the 50's. if you want to go to Mars-go to Mars. You you want to go to an asteroid-go to an asteroid.

Jon

Yes, or just go to Mars and annoy Phobos and Demnos while you're there.

I'd be afraid to

It is quite impossible to spin any object of reasonable dimensions in such a way that the people inside feel a bit of gravity and yet don't become extremely sick. Its quite easy to calculate.

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Oh, didn't realise/think about it!
What's the minimum size then? (over 30 foot?).
Of course you could split it & connect the halves with a tether.

What am I – a doctor or a asteroid shuttle conductor?!

Actually, if you're really as your avatar depicts, He'sDeadJim, you're a corpse.

Why not create a strong magnetic field to protect the astronauts? Is it because the size of the field wouldn't be large enough to deflect the radiation?

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

Way over 30 feet: at a 65 meter diameter, you're not going to manage more than fractional G without making everyone ill, due to Coriolis forces.

From what I recall, most people can adapt to around 1 RPM of rotation, while some can adapt to as high as 3 RPMs. Wikipedia has a pretty good article discussing artificial gravity, especially "spin gravity" like we're talking about. They cite a radius of 224 meters at 2 RPMs to produce a full 1G of artificial gravity.

Ah, there it is: there's an online "SpinCalc" I saw on the Battletech forums (spacecraft in that scifi series/game use acceleration or spinning grav decks to produce artificial gravity) way back when. Using that, at 1 RPM, you need a 894 meter radius to produce 1 G of centripetal acceleration.

So, yeah, unless you've got those relly rare individuals who can handle very high numbers of RPMs, you need to get big, which means moving a lot of mass.

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Sleep? Isn't that that totally inadaquate substitute for caffeine I've heard so much about?

Quantumfoamy.com, my astronomy/astrophotography blog.

These limitations do not seem to apply to using short arm centrifuges for relative short period exercise purposes. Short arm centrifuges with radii as small as 2 m and accelerations as high as 2G appear to be useful and tolerable.

Jon

why would rotation necessarily make you feel sick if it's producing gravity?

link

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ghostNASA.com

Having spent time in a Barany chair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1r%C3%A1ny_chair, as well as turning aircraft, I can tell you that one thing you don't want to do is spend a lot of time moving your head around in a quickly rotating environment. In a continuously rotating environment, your inner ear will eventually reach an equilibrium where none of its fluid is rotating relative to your head and you feel like you are motionless. But if you turn your head out of the axis of rotation, then the fluid in your ears will begin rotating and you'll feel like you are doing things that aren't physically possible.

Mike

Does this also explain Tequila?

Ah... so then how do you explain this http://www.nsbri.org/NewsPublicOut/Release.epl?r=86

or the Gravitron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitron ) amusement park ride (which I've spent a good half hour in without it stopping [friend worked the Gravitron at a 4h fair one year and while it was fairly dead let us stay on it until others wanted to ride] and didn't get ill... sure I walked funny for 10 minutes after getting off though).

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