EMMI - Electric Solar Wind Sail Facilitated Manned Mars Initiative

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel electric solar wind sail concept combined with asteroid mining to enable affordable, continuous manned missions between Earth and Mars, reducing costs and increasing mission flexibility.

Contribution

It introduces a propellantless electric sail system integrated with asteroid mining for sustainable Mars transportation, a novel approach to reduce launch mass and costs.

Findings

Potential for continuous bidirectional Earth-Mars travel

Reduction in spacecraft fuel requirements

Possibility of cost-effective Mars missions

Abstract

The novel propellantless electric solar wind sail concept promises efficient low thrust transportation in the Solar System outside Earth's magnetosphere. Combined with asteroid mining to provide water and synthetic cryogenic rocket fuel in orbits of Earth and Mars, possibilities for affordable continuous manned presence on Mars open up. Orbital fuel and water enable reusable bidirectional Earth-Mars vehicles for continuous manned presence on Mars and allow smaller fuel fraction of spacecraft than what is achievable by traditional means. Water can also be used as radiation shielding of the manned compartment, thus reducing the launch mass further. In addition, the presence of fuel in the orbit of Mars provides the option for an all-propulsive landing, thus potentially eliminating issues of heavy heat shields and augmenting the capability of pinpoint landing. With this E-sail enabled scheme, the recurrent cost of continuous bidirectional traffic between Earth and Mars might ultimately approach the recurrent cost of running the International Space Station, ISS.