Lockheed Martin Mars Base Camp Concept

sferrin

sferrin

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Series can be seen over on Flickr here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/albums/72157689489028895
 

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Very interesting, indeed. Thanks sferrin.

I like the "Lander" :

k2tsHCG.png
 
MBC-1 (Mars-Bound Craft) shuttle
 

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They did talk publicly about that big shuttle earlier this year at a conference. I grabbed images of a couple of slides, and I think the presenter said that their concept is that it would use "proven components" from the Orion spacecraft.

I don't really buy that. I think that they put a fair amount of effort into their Mars Base Camp concept. After they did that, I think a senior exec said "It needs to be sexier to compete with Elon Musk's nutty plans" and so they came up with that shuttle. My guess is that they spent 95% of their time and effort on the Mars Base Camp and 5% on the shuttle, because the latter is primarily for show.
 
Published on May 18, 2016
Mars Base Camp is Lockheed Martin’s concept for humanity’s first crewed mission to Mars. Built on proven technologies like the Orion deep-space crew capsule, the Mars Base Camp concept would send astronaut-scientists to Mars orbit as early as 2028. Their mission: collect Martian surface samples, operate scientific rovers and UAVs in real-time, and confirm the ideal spot for a landing mission.

https://youtu.be/RsOvixkzZ_E
 
TomS said:
MBC = Mars Base Camp, I think.
Click to expand...
Actually, Mars Base Camp shuttle is called Mars Ascent/Descent Vehicle (MADV) by LM
I stand corrected.
 

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After viewing the Video
I must say Lockheed came up with clever concept

The entire Spaceship is build at The Exploration Gateway Platform around the Earth–Moon Lagrange points, (L1 or L2)
This reduce amount of fuel enormous because SLS making most Job of hauling the Mars Ship mass, out Earth deep Gravity well.
Also clever use of Ships Fuel tanks als Shield against solar radiation storms.

Sadly the Video not went in detail on Mission architecture
Like if the Mars ship is launch in two pieces, that dock at Mars or how Mars Ascent Descent Vehicle arrive at Mars...
 
interesting what you find on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5pK-VAteY

Oh by the way

our colleagues form NASA Spaceflight.com Forum
got more Information and Picture on that Lockheed program

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40324.0
 
Michel Van said:
interesting what you find on Youtube
Click to expand...
Cut from Human To Mars '17 livestream https://livestream.com/viewnow/HumansToMars2017/videos/155974408
LM MBC presentation starts @11:20
 
Michel Van said:
After viewing the Video
I must say Lockheed came up with clever concept

The entire Spaceship is build at The Exploration Gateway Platform around the Earth–Moon Lagrange points, (L1 or L2)
This reduce amount of fuel enormous because SLS making most Job of hauling the Mars Ship mass, out Earth deep Gravity well.
Also clever use of Ships Fuel tanks als Shield against solar radiation storms.

Sadly the Video not went in detail on Mission architecture
Like if the Mars ship is launch in two pieces, that dock at Mars or how Mars Ascent Descent Vehicle arrive at Mars...
Click to expand...
Boeing had a similar conceot recently as part of their SEP-based architecture. Using L2 not only reduced how much propellant the Mars vehicle needs, it also reduces how long the low-thust SEP needs to spend getting out of our gravity well.
 
Regarding the Deep Space Gateway: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-russia-moon-joint-lunar-station.html
 
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/28/lockheed-martin-unveils-fully-reusable-crewed-martian-lander.html
 

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...
 

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https://www.space.com/38306-lockheed-martin-reusable-mars-lander-unveiled.html
 

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That lander is extremely cool looking. Plus it is easier to build a SSTO on Mars than Earth, considering the lower gravity and delta-V to orbit. Although maintenance of LH2 rocket engines at Mars ? won't be easy.
 
I have to assume Scott and Fantastic Plastic is all over this vehicle. Hope so. This thing is a 'rocket' in the classical sense. Robert Heinlein would approve.

David
 
Archibald said:
That lander is extremely cool looking. Plus it is easier to build a SSTO on Mars than Earth, considering the lower gravity and delta-V to orbit. Although maintenance of LH2 rocket engines at Mars ? won't be easy.
Click to expand...

The decision to refuel in Mars orbit using H2 and O2 cracked from water strikes me as problematic. They talk about bringing water from Earth, which is a long way to haul it, or launching it from Mars to orbit, then turning it into fuel, which seems backwards. Otherwise, they're looking to a pretty extensive deep-space infrastructure to get water from asteroids, etc. In-situ resource utilization to make methlox on the Mars surface seems like a much more efficient solution.
 
cluttonfred said:
I sure hope the elevator to the top of that lander never breaks down. That's a looong way up or down!
Click to expand...

tell that to Tintin and his freakkinly huge nuclear V2.
http://en.tintin.com/images/tintin/albums/16marcheLune/C16%2025%20B%20COLOR_en.jpg
 
I suspect that in an emergency, you could climb the rail with something like a mountaineer's ascender -- some sort of mechanical device that would clip into the rail and pull a crewman up without relying on the lift itself.
 
could you imagine being on the surface of Mars and looking up at the rocket because you forgot to bring the emergency "Ascender Cable"?
 
They have bigger problems than the ladder. A colleague of mine, who has worked on spacesuit design, EVA tools design, Space Shuttle, and spacecraft life support and subsystems development, says that the information on the internal design of the vehicle released by LM makes little sense.
 
In case people haven't found it, here's Lockheed's paper describing the MBC concept and the MADV.

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/space/photo/mbc/MBC_Updates_IAC_2017.pdf
 
Grey Havoc said:
Regarding the Deep Space Gateway: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-russia-moon-joint-lunar-station.html
Click to expand...

https://science.slashdot.org/story/18/07/18/2245203/chinese-space-official-seems-unimpressed-with-nasas-lunar-gateway
 
I think that there is another round of cloud computing crashes going around at the moment. We'll have to wait and see if comes back up any time soon.
 
I've always wonder why in all the moon base/mars base concepts I've seen, they have the rocket landing/takeoff area right in or directly next to the base itself. Not the best idea I'd think --- not done down here on earth is it --
 

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