Mission to Mars (6 page)

America’s reach for the red planet is a litmus test for determining the health of our spacefaring nation. Regular travel between Earth and the distant dunes of Mars is impractical if we revert to Apollo-style modular spacecraft that cast off their components along the way.

Back in the early 1980s I began to mull over applying my orbital rendezvous expertise to a lunar spacecraft system that would perform perpetual cycling orbits between Earth and the moon. Central to the idea is using the relative gravitational forces of Earth and the moon to sustain the orbit, thereby expending very little fuel. But there was a catch. The approach took longer to get to the moon this way. For such a short distance, a four-day trip using cycling orbits was not sufficiently advantageous.

It was my good friend Tom Paine, a former NASA administrator during a number of the Apollo program expeditions, including mine, who urged me to adapt the cycling orbit concept to the much more intricate goal of supporting human missions to Mars. Before his passing in 1992, Paine chaired the National Commission on Space, an eminent group that authored for the White House, U.S. Congress, and the general public a seminal report,
Pioneering the Space Frontier
. That document calls for “a pioneering mission for 21st-century America … to lead the exploration and development of the space frontier, advancing
science, technology, and enterprise, and building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of the Moon to the plains of Mars.”

Within its pages, the report stresses the establishment of a “Bridge Between Worlds,” calling attention to the important
role of cycling spaceships as a “better way” to gain access to Mars and to avoid accelerating and decelerating large spaceships. Cycling spaceships permanently shuttling back and forth between the orbits of Earth and Mars would need only minor trajectory adjustments on each cycle, the report notes.

A 2005 sketch shows Aldrin’s preliminary concept of cycling orbits between Earth and Mars
.

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Illustration Credit 2.1
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In working with Paine, commission members, and staff, I emphasized my belief that the cycler system alters the philosophy behind a Mars program. It makes possible the dream of regular sojourns to the red planet and makes achievable a permanent human presence there. That’s the only way we’ll ever succeed in taking humanity’s next step between our planet and Mars—and, in due course, I believe, to securing our future second home.

Through the years I have been in touch with creative space engineers, particularly James Longuski, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, along with colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory like Damon Landau, to flesh out the Aldrin Mars Cycler.

My cycler system perpetually transits along predictable routes across the ocean of space. Implementing the cycler system enables transport of people, cargo, and other materials to and from Earth over inner solar system distances—and at a great fuel savings.

A sequential buildup of a Full Cycling Network would be a counterpart to the ever increasing escalation of actions at the moon and Mars. Earth, the moon, and Mars become busy places as people, cargo, and commerce navigate through the inner solar system.

Think of it as a space version of the early transcontinental railroads here on Earth. They were the transportation backbone that moved people and cargo into vast stretches of wilderness, enabling exploration and eventual settlement of regions.

Space road map: Aldrin cycling system

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Illustration Credit 2.2
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In the present day, you don’t have to look too far to see a number of terrestrial parallels to cycling transportation. For instance, cruise ships drop off or take on passengers without pulling into harbor. Then there are ski lift and gondola operations that use a cable system that works under harsh conditions, be they cold climes or winds. Passengers rendezvous with the cable at a definite point in space and time to acquire velocity, distance, and direction. Another example is grabbing a taxi or hotel shuttle bus from the airport to a select spot. That mode of
transport is a cycling link for its occupants as well as cargo—their luggage.

Our airlines operate on a cycling model, too. Think of the economic stupidity of flying across the Atlantic in a jetliner and then tossing the plane away after you’ve reached your destination. These analogies and others helped point me in the direction of reusable and recycling transportation.

Long ago the sound barrier was penetrated and tamed. Now we need to break through the reusability barricade, one that has been perpetuated, in my view, by greed of government bureaucracy and corporate industry. Once the reusability barrier has been surmounted, the economics realized will influence other nations to pursue the same course, a path that also enables the piercing of the recycling barrier and the cycling barrier.

Reusable, recyclable space transportation is the means to give surety in linking Earth and Mars. This is a “waste not” philosophy. Space expressways are the hallmarks of a sound vision for the future. It’s a mix of beautiful simplicity melded with a ballet of gravitational forces that moves humanity outward to Mars.

There is no need for “giant leaps,” more a hop, skip, and a jump. For these long-duration missions we need an entirely new spacecraft, which I call the exploration module, or XM. Unlike the Orion capsule, which is designed for short flights around Earth and to the moon, the XM would contain the radiation shields, artificial gravity, food production, and recycling facilities necessary for a spaceflight of up to three years.

A prototype XM could be based on NASA’s canceled space station habitation module. It could be launched in the near term
and attached to the space station for a long-duration shakedown test. Extended flights around the moon with second-generation XMs would serve as dry runs for its first real mission in 2018: a one-year flight culminating in a 30,000-mile-an-hour flyby of the comet 46P/Wirtanen.

In 2019 and 2020 the asteroid 2001 GP2 will come within ten million miles of Earth, in position for a month-long rendezvous with the XM. In 2021 the mission would be a crewed approach to 99942 Apophis, the asteroid that will just miss Earth in 2029. That space rock has a tiny chance of hitting our home base in 2036. If a 2036 impact looms, the 2029 mission could be used to divert the 820-foot-wide piece of real estate.

The last step toward Mars, around 2025, would be a landing on the planet’s 17-mile-wide moon, Phobos, which orbits Mars less than 4,000 miles above the Martian terrain. A Phobos base would be the perfect perch from which to monitor and control the robots that will build the infrastructure on the Martian surface, in preparation for the first human visitors.

The objective of putting in place my Unified Space Vision is to bring about these milestones of space exploration. In realizing this comprehensive stepping-stone plan, America’s future in space can be guaranteed—as would be the first footfall on Mars.

What does human spaceflight do for America?

First of all, it reminds the American public that nothing is impossible if free people work together to accomplish great things. It captures the imagination of our youth and inspires them to study science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. Furthermore, a vigorous human spaceflight program fuels the American workforce with high technology and cutting-edge
aerospace jobs. And it fosters collaborative international relationships to ensure U.S. foreign policy leadership.

How do we accomplish this?

If the vision of humans pushing outward beyond low Earth orbit in a sustainable way is to be achieved, I have my own inventory of “must-have” technologies. Success in moving onward to Mars and other objectives is predicated on advanced technology developments. NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT), led by Mason Peck, is providing a leadership role in pushing forward on a number of high-priority capabilities. The OCT has begun to rebuild the space agency’s advanced Space Technology Program.

An early upgrade concept depicting an Aldrin starport—an activity hub in space—that uses solar dynamic power

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Illustration Credit 2.3
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Early design for building up the International Space Station

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Illustration Credit 2.4
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A report issued last year from the prestigious National Research Council of the National Academies—
NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space
—observed that technological breakthroughs have been the foundation of virtually every NASA success. The Apollo landings on the moon, the report stated, are now an icon for the successful application of technology to a task that was once looked upon as a hazy dream.

That report also noted that human and robotic exploration of the solar system is an intrinsically high-risk endeavor. And that means new technologies, new ideas, and bold applications of technology, engineering, and science are needed. On the other hand, the study added,

Here’s a quick look at what I view as the “Buzz basics”—a list of the necessary technological developments required for moving outward and onward: