Authors:
- Offers a highly readable yet realistic view of the possibilities for human missions to Mars
- Provides for the first time a ‘level-headed’ assessment of plans for human exploration of Mars to counteract the tendency of space agencies to take an over-optimistic approach to such interplanetary missions
- Collects together into a single, handy reference, a wide range of material on human missions to Mars that is currently widely dispersed and fragmented in the literature
- Describes in detail the requirements and characteristics of human missions to Mars and assesses current space agency plans in the light of such requirements
- Contains a large number of black and white and colour illustrations and line diagrams illustrating the many practical aspects of planning and executing human missions to Mars
- Details the history of planning Mars missions, the technologies needed, the mission concepts, and NASA activities. It also provides details on solar energy and water availability
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)
Part of the book sub series: Astronautical Engineering (ASTROENG)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
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 anannotated 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 andaero-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.Reviews
“This second edition of Donald Rapp’s book is an impressive, comprehensive, and well-organized work that begins by exploring the history of the planning of human flights to Mars. ... There are three very comprehensive Appendices, which derive full statistical data for collecting solar energy on the Moon and Mars, and the quantities of water to be found on Mars at different localities (including a discussion of the topical ‘slope lineae’). A Glossary completes the text.” (Richard McKim, The Observatory, Vol. 136 (1253), August, 2016)
Authors and Affiliations
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South Pasadena, USA
Donald Rapp
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Human Missions to Mars
Book Subtitle: Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet
Authors: Donald Rapp
Series Title: Springer Praxis Books
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22249-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-33092-1Published: 23 August 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-22249-3Published: 31 October 2015
Edition Number: 2
Number of Pages: XXVIII, 582
Number of Illustrations: 64 b/w illustrations, 124 illustrations in colour
Additional Information: Jointly published with Praxis Publishing, UK
Topics: Aerospace Technology and Astronautics, Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics), Control, Robotics, Mechatronics