Bill Warren's Aphelion Spacecraft Shared Universe

[kailhofer]

So, as I read this, this would be a hard sf universe?

Given this specific spacecraft, it follows there would need to be a specific set of technology required for the ships/missions. Is there a primer for this technology somewhere so that we could see what is possible?

Art would be cool, of course, but I could use a little more to go on. If I try this (and I'll try anything at least once), I'd write about something human happening on a mission, but I don't think I could totally gloss around the tech. Plus, what I'd write about could be influenced by what is possible or how the crew lives.

It's kind of odd to have a series without characters or at least an institution which prepares sets of types of characters, like a Starfleet. What kind of personnel are typically required for such a mission? Pilot, commander, a couple of scientists/doctors, and a fix-it guy? (Wait, that's the set of characters from the movie Red Planet.)

Is anyone up on what's actually planned for missions to Mars?

Nate

[kailhofer]

Those are nice references. How long of a story are you looking for? 7500? More? Less?

Most of the suggested storylines concerned after effects. That is, what happened after the crew reaches Mars. But obviously the ships need to get there first. They would need to be assembled, crewed, the bugs shaken out, and then launched.

I couldn't find anything about how or where they'd be put together, which is the setting I find myself most interested in writing a story for. That way it's just a starting point, with mostly disposable characters, but could set up the general universe but still leave the recurring characters wide open for development.

Also, those inflatable modules... Can they handle the stresses of a rocket firing, or would they have to be deflated first? I couldn't find much on their capabilities, even the privately-funded ones currently in orbit. That set of events could be a cool backdrop for a story, too, come to think of it.

The service module with reentry pod... is that a one-shot thing? Could it land & fly back to the ship more than once, as long as it has enough fuel? Or once you start landing, that's it, it has to go down?

Obviously, after they've landed, anything people have dreamed about exploring Mars since time began is in play, from Martians to plague microbes to crash landings, etc. But first they need to get there, in an interesting enough way that people want to keep reading more stories.

Problem is, in books and movies, that's usually the part people gloss over...

Nate

[kailhofer]

Hopefully, Aphelions 1 and 2 will rely on conventional shielding as well as water which is a good mitigator (I think I just made up a word) for radiation exposure.

-- david j.

The problem with using water as a radiation shielding material is that water + the doubled hull to contain it in would be heavy, so your engines will have to be that much more powerful to move your ship + the mass of all that water & construction, and to park the ship in orbit at the destination. That water will also have to be launched from the ground on this end of the journey. Also, whatever is lost due to micro-meteor punctures during the outward leg of the trip would have to be manufactured at the destination, as well as brought up from the ground there too, for the trip home. Not to mention finding and fixing the leaks in the ship's skin before refilling the water-jacket.

By contrast, aluminimum and polyethylene are far less massive, even when the amount used for shielding is increased. Increased by how much, and how much water it would take for the same degree of shielding, I don't know. How much mass the water-jacket construction would add, I don't know.

The "Storm Cellar" idea might be workable. If the ship's normal water tank were made larger and with a central chamber that could house the crew (like sardines in a tin) during the worst of the radiation periods and if the extra mass of the construction were within the ability of the engines to move/stop.

The lighter the ship, the faster the trip, and the less time the crew will have to worry about solar flares.

Mathmagicians, like Mrs. Peel, you are needed. How much water are we talking about? Versus how much aluminimum and polyethylene? Am I correct in my assumptions, or am I blowing smoke up my ass(umptions)?

Dan

Ooo, this is an interesting conversation.

Question: can ice protect from radiation as well as liquid water?

Because, as I understand it, as long as you keep it out of sunlight, ice can exist exposed to direct vacuum. So instead of heading to the cellar, perhaps you could hide in the emergency ice house/reserve fuel depot (or a passage that runs through the center of the ice vestibule). If I'm right on that, you don't need to worry about keeping it liquid or fixing leaks, or even keeping it in an airtight module--just strap it on outside somewhere the sun won't shine on it (like maybe underneath that big hab module or in another hab that's just a usually unpressurized shell).

Fuel can be made from the hydrogen & oxygen in the ice, as well as having it for drinking water if you need it. Or maybe the leftover water can stay with the orbiting hab modules around Mars. I'm pretty sure I saw that somewhere... a plan to leave the Habs in orbit like a space station.

Given there is ice on the south pole of the moon (which I realize is contested), I planned on having the ships fueled from that source as they are assembled in orbit there. My thought was to refine the fuel from the ice & haul it up to the ship using automated/rarely-piloted magsails (which theoretically can achieve orbit at a magnetic pole of a planet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magsail). There should be no reason that said magsails couldn't haul up ice for shielding or reserves as well. They'd be mostly automated, so it wouldn't matter that if they didn't go very fast.

However, I suppose that this would mean that crews would have to embark from the moon instead of Earth.

Anyway, just a notion.

Nate

[kailhofer]

Maybe instead of a storm cellar, just use trash bags. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005 ... eships.htm

Ok, not really trash bags, but it's a neat idea.

When it comes to the ice, I'm just thinking outside the box. The way those solar panels are oriented on the ship, obviously the whole thing can't rotate for gravity or reducing radiation exposure. Part would always face away from the sun, shielding anything we'd feel we'd need to put there. As long as whatever the ship is made of can stop x-rays and proton megaflares (the biggest one is estimated to have produced 20 billion protons per centimeter), anything in its shadow should be safe.

And won't there be loads of time to kill on this mission? (Heck, I figured how to kill time would be somebody's whole story in this series.) If you don't want to EVA, like I said, put water or fuel in another of those inflatable Hab modules. They say the cooling liquids used for missions could make good shields, too.

I like the idea of spare fuel (or at least the building blocks of fuel) that can double as drinking water on missions to a desert planet. What if there's a problem that they can't return as planned and don't find water? Wouldn't you want to know that just get back to the orbiting station and there's a big reserve? That, and I love the idea of using old technology (like ice blocks like out of a lake, but in this case ice hauled from the moon) to do something really cutting edge. I mean, if it can't work... it can't work. I don't want to advocate something silly.

As for exercise, you mean you don't wish to further the brand-new sport of zero-gee wrestling in the open space of an inflatable Hab? :) Maybe Aphelion 1 vs. Aphelion 2 as a team variant? Gotta be better than endlessly doing squats on the interim Resistive Exercise Device (iRED).

But yes, it would be cool if parts could spin. Dan, is any part of the design modifiable, or is this it?

Nate

[kailhofer]

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... merge.html

This story puts the target year at approximately 2030, and seems to approximate a lot of what we've seen in the design or have discussed.

Are we plotting Aphelion 1 & 2 as that first trip, or later down the line? If later, how much later?

Nate

[kailhofer]

I found this article interesting: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1267

It details a movement amongst the scientific community to change the "return to the Moon" plans away from our celestial sister to Lagrangian points instead.

If it happens, that could influence this new universe. I know it would matter to my idea, whenever I get time to start plotting/brainstorming, which isn't looking like anytime soon...

Nate

[kailhofer]

Anyone who is interested in this shared universe but doesn't check the Fun in Games folder may wish to look again, because the challenges for April and May are set in this venue. We're trying to explore the possibilities of this universe, challenge our writing skills, and have some fun along the way.

2 parts over 2 months, equaling 2000 words total. So if you thought the flash format was too small, give this one a try. Twice as much elbow room.

Everyone is welcome.

Nate