Thursday, February 6, 2014

Colonization of Ceres

After looking at the previous post and the chart, it would seem to be a very great challenge.  There would be little room for cargo for a direct trip from Earth.  The only configuration that give a reasonable cargo capacity would be a nuclear thermal rocket.  Even then, there would have to be refueling capability on the planetoid that would allow a trip back to Earth.

A bigger rocket would help, but even a fully tricked out SLS with 260k pounds of heavy lift would only be able to put 100k lbs in orbit around Ceres.  That 100k lbs would have to include the nuclear core and rocket casing itself.  It would have to include a lander.

If you included the entire structure as just one piece, it would have to be about the size of an SIVB rocket stage that went to the moon during Apollo.

Life support would be an issue.  Total trip time is about 16 months.  You'd have to feed a crew and keep them alive for that long with only that much mass to work with.  Without total recycling, it would seem to be a stretch.

Ceres will have to wait.

Even Mars is a stretch at this time and for a long time to come.


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