Basic Design

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

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## Introduction

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

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**Mission Profile: Mars Deca Direct**

**(Status: Early Draft - 2031 to 2040)**

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**Stay Calm & Carry On:** This is a big project, planning a town on Mars, how to ship everything and everyone there is where we have a solid framework. How to build it in stages and how it will evolve into the future to become self-sufficient is much less defined. Don't be intimidated and do feel free to leave the advanced mission options for future reading.

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It is quite technical in places but we are making the writing more accessible as we go - it is early days. That is why we need more artists, non-technical volunteers who can help us plan a place where people live great lives. Now to the intro...

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**Toward Mars:** This is a settlement oriented SpaceX Mars mission profile: Mars Deca Direct. We send ten ships to the surface of Mars every launch window and build a town - planning one decade at a time. This plan also covers Earthbase support, space assets and everything else generations of settlers will need to thrive. One of the key concepts that makes our plan different is we don't land the majority of our industrial power-grid. Where typical plans for Mars expeditions rely on a few communication satellites in orbit we need industrial class solar power satellites. Landing that massive power grid on Mars simply isn't practical. We also send construction equipment, rolling stock, to build a town - not an outpost.

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Mars Deca Direct is also the real world engineering basis for our "M.A.R.S. Multiverse" futurism effort. The technology, the real engineering, is already out there across thousands of academic papers, industry sources and public domain NASA resources. We are gathering that data but using it to 'paint the big picture' for a future civilization in space. Regardless of your background you can plan with us because we need to cover all walks of life. We especially need artists, effective communicators and anyone with the ability to clearly imagine the future.

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**SpaceX Starships:** Since 2019 Elon Musk and the SpaceX team have been focusing on mass production of Starships and have the ultimate goal of sustainable space settlement. Since their switch to robust stainless steel ship construction it has been clear that these vessels are going to be built by the thousands. However, they are counting on other companies, organizations and nations to handle development of advanced settlement systems. They are counting on people like us, people like you, to plan life on Mars. Key aspects of our plan are as follows:

* Fission reactors will not be considered available, nor will we rely on them to survive or scale up.
* Many of the Starships will sent out will becoming permanent structures on Mars. One in ten will return to Earth orbit.
* SpaceX Starships are versatile and their robust stainless steel structures can be modified easily - so engineering variant ship types is feasible.
* The ships will rely on methane oxygen (methalox) propellant produced on Mars for a return voyage.
* Ultimately this town and its orbital assets will be a key to opening up the belt and beyond.

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Starships must be mass produced to achieve the SpaceX goal of one million people on Mars in the 2050s. It is not the same antiquated space industry that slowly produces immensely expensive throw away rockets. Likewise, planning for a traditional expedition or small science outpost is not the same as planning for permanent settlement. The goal horizon for mission profiles such as Dr. Zubrin's Mars Direct or NASA roadmaps focus on small, serial expeditions. The ship variants and systems we benchmark in our technological analysis also apply to other design projects on this wiki … plus our mission plan solves some **big problems** of Mars settlement.

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By Thorenn - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79611568*We have all the technology we need. What we have been waiting for is reusable rockets and the low launch costs they provide. Soon this will be more than a dream.*

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Most of all, the structure of a settlement effort cannot be the same as that of an expedition base or outpost. If living there for decades is a continual exercise in extreme endurance convoys won't become a viable town. In the first decade that we describe here resources will be constrained - yet decisions must be made with an eye to the future of the place as a settlement. Average people must feel at home on Mars if it is to be more than an outpost. Even if a small base or outpost comes first, a strategy matching or exceeding the scale and general vision of Deca Direct will need to follow. For an excellent speculative timeline of a small science outpost plan see https://www.humanmars.net/p/mars-colonization-timeline.html?m=1. Our plan assumes one or more outposts of this scale will have their location chosen before we do. We will site select so any other base isn't too close.

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**Why not 100 or 1000 Starships per convoy?** As per Elon Musk's plans he intends to send orders of magnitude more Starships than we project here - one thousand not ten. Even if the volume of ship production does not meet Mr. Musk's aspirational goal, it seems feasible that launch costs could fall to $20 USD per kg or less. See some details here https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-drops-details-for-spacexs-million-person-mars-mega-colony/. In that context Mars Deca Direct is a realistic lower bound for feasible settlement - sending ten Starships to Mars on each trajectory window and supporting them with other more economical payloads. We will explore the possibilities of extra ships through various sales and service strategies. Deca Direct would fit as a private project within a larger general effort as Starship variants are intentionally easy to engineer.

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**Gardens of the Galaxy:** The core philosophy for Deca Direct is settlement must build gardens and seed complex life in as many ways as possible. The products of settlement will be science, art and a haven for other explorers and gardeners who wish to venture further afield. This is not a zero sum game: people leaving Earth do not somehow lessen it. The knowledge, discoveries and different perspectives of those who take their first steps out of the cradle that is Earth will share insight with those who remain. This is not a utopian ideal, yet it is a meaningful purpose. Most of all, where we travel we have the power to bring life, nature, with all of its wonder and splendor. We are makers not takers - gardeners on the Moon, on Mars. We are the vanguard of life - gardeners of the galaxy!

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* EDEN ISS Space Analog Greenhouse: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00656/full
* Moon Direct & Lunar Development: https://youtu.be/68GYck4MLVg
* NASA Extraterrestrial Greenhouses: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/lunar-martian-greenhouses-designed-to-mimic-those-on-earth
* Nitrogen on Mars: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/abs/where-is-the-nitrogen-on-mars/72F576A1E045B0CAB83216B5D69870A6
* The Case For Space, Dr. Robert Zubrin via the Cato Institute: https://youtu.be/QGnBGCR-0FU

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**How many people?** The question of how many people will go per ship, per convoy, will likely change as our mission profile evolves. This page is a beginning not an end. The crew will likely be set by conservative NASA estimates of 25 cubic meters per crew member. The goal of minimizing genetic damage from radiation exposure limits space even further as a more than a solar storm shelter is required: our ships need a large shielded habitat section.

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With an 825 cubic meter interior pressurized volume that results in a crew of 33 per 9 meter class SpaceX Starship. Approximately half of that volume will be highly shielded from radiation and reserved for bunks and work stations so that most crew spend the majority of their time there. Less frequently used areas are not as heavily shielded but is used for less time or consist of pressurized storage that in and of itself provides some radiation shielding. Given inefficiency in this sort of interior layout, we set the initial crew per ship at 30. Hot racking, where people share a bunk in the shielded "storm shelter" section for 12 hours each and are otherwise at stations, could double this to 60.

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Regardless of how many people can safely travel on a liner, multiple Mars Return Starships - the liner core ships described in sections below - are sent in each convoy. These ships will land uncrewed with full cargos and provide lifeboats for crewed ships. If the crewed liner cannot safely land, crew can transfer to another of the same type. If one of these ships cannot return to Earth, spares are available. This is our end to end lifeboat strategy, providing as much safety as can be expected. These spare ships also provide assurance for physical sample returns to Earth, an important byproduct of early settlement.

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**Extensive Testing Assumed:** An assumption for this mission profile is that SpaceX has will conducted many orbital, lunar and even Martian flights with uncrewed and crewed ships. We will not be the first on Mars, but we will arrive ready to thrive. The iterative nature of Starship design allows our cost effective and relatively safe use of models with minor design variations. This also leads us to assume the vessels risks are well understood. Any shakedown required will strictly be for our own equipment, processes and procedures.

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*Out there, space, Luna, Mars and the stars... challenges and discovery are waiting for us. That will help us innovate here on Earth. It is rare that we know where to find a scientific revolution - that alone makes space exploration amazing.*

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**The Value of a Reference Mission:** Many space agencies, national governments and private organizations commission exploratory studies commonly called reference missions. These mission plans, white papers, trade studies, etc. have value because they demonstrate or explore certain technologies and strategies. Mars Deca Direct is no different and though no space settlement may end up using exactly the roadmaps, ship designs, settlement architecture etc. that we come up with... they certainly could use it all. The real value in our creative but thoroughly real world approach is to teach and inspire. This is why the Sunhaven Research Group (SRG) conducts Mars Deca Direct as a public domain, open source project. Like many of you, we dream of Mars, of space, of a better humanity forged from exploration of the final frontier.

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* Mars Direct 2.0, Mars Society Presentation: https://youtu.be/9xN1rqhRSTE
* Mars Direct Overview: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars\_Direct
* Mars Small Outpost Timeline: https://www.humanmars.net/p/mars-colonization-timeline.html?m=1
* NASA Design Reference Missions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars\_Design\_Reference\_Mission

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**Settlement Timeline:** We are working towards a mission timeline... Want to know more?

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**Get Started Settling Mars:** Making this concept into a fully fledged mission plan, even a useful reference resource for actual settlement, is something we can do. In the technological analysis link list below we have note pages. Each of these categories is open for ideas, art work, collected research, etc. This mission plan will be public domain and one day could shape the face of Mars. This wiki uses CC that requires attribution and of course we will preserve that for any release. We welcome your ideas and contributions!

**Register as a member of the wiki, pick a topic in the Analysis & Administration section and get started on Mars settlement!**

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## Mars Starship Types

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

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We send ten ships to the surface of Mars every launch window for ten years, plus space assets that support them in building a self sustaining town. Mars Deca Direct uses variant 1st gen SpaceX (9 meter dia.) Starships of multiple types in convoys to Mars and only one of them comes back to local (Earth-Lunar) space per convoy. These are still Starships, but variants that require less equipment such as no sea-level engines (for ships that will never leave Mars). This plan does not require engineering new mini-Starships (which have scale issues) or specialized landers though we will account for changes in Earth To Orbit (ETO) ships such as possible OAC types below. Settlement requires big payloads to Mars orbit and surface, not smaller ones. Though they are not a priority Zubrin style tethered spin gravity architecture variants or "G types" will also be examined.

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**SpaceX Starship Links:** Some useful detail on the ships that will lift us from Earth and land us on Mars.

* Starship Compendium: https://www.elonx.net/super-heavy-starship-compendium/
* Starship Users Guide (PDF): https://www.spacex.com/media/starship\_users\_guide\_v1.pdf

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**Orbit Abort Capsule (OAC) Type:** These ships may end up being the preferred human rated Earth To Orbit (ETO) ships. They include a large crew capsule that can abort and perform parachute landings. Use of such an option doesn't affect the Earth Orbit to Mars operations to a large degree, mainly changing the logistics of getting crews on and off Earth. Two versions of this may be possible.

* ETO OAC - A dedicated Earth to orbit ship for delivering passengers to space is a likely development should abort systems be required for human rated Starships.
* Lunar OAC - This is a lunar scout that uses hyrdrolox engines so that fuel can be manufactured in situ from water alone. This only makes sense if lunar resource extraction is ongoing.
* Mars OAC - This is similar to the recent mini-starship concept but does not ride inside a faring. It uses methalox raptors. The development of this ship type could spur a second generation of liners, where a Mars OAC type can dock as a liner core. In this case, the abort capsule would have inspired a small - seating room only - passenger lander design.

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**Mars Return (Liner) Type:** In Deca Direct most crew have the option of staying even if a return trip on a Mars Return type ship is possible, with a minimal complement required to return with the ship full of scientific samples on every initial convoy. Mars Return ship types that come back stay in high transfer Lunar or Earth orbits and dock with Earth Return variants for crew transfer. Mars return types that do not return to Mars for some reason remain in space for use as stations, depots, emergency convoy ships and a commercial fleet in the Hill sphere - developing Earth and Lunar orbital industry. These ships are the cores of Solar Shield Liners like the USS Hope. Only one outgoing Mars Return vehicle in convoy 2 is crewed by humans... Convoy 2 is identical or larger compared to Convoy 1.

* **Avasarala Class Starship:** Want to know more?

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**Earth Return Trip:** It is likely the docked liners will not return with Starships - Mars Return types will be capable of taking small crews back to Earth on their own. The logic is that the few people returning from Mars will likely remain on Earth and can thus tolerate the radiation dose from the return trip. They will have access to the medical care and naturally low radiation environment that makes the one way return trip a small statistical risk. Liners provide shielding during the outbound voyage to Mars because high lifetime exposure risks the long term genetic health of the small Martian population. Liners protect for a lifetime and they guard future generations of Martians.

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**Mars Base Type:** The other convoy ships are automated Mars Base variants, designed to stay on Mars for use in an extremely secure core settlement. These starships can be optimized for their role with Infrastructure, heavy equipment and industrial systems installed. Durable supplies will be packaged in such a way that a failed landing - the riskiest part of the process - will not destroy them.

* **Johnson Class Starship:** Want to know more?

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**Mars Orbital / Shield Type:** Though liner core Starships are best landed on Mars it is possible that mechanical failures or mishaps render ships unable to land. These can still serve the settlement well as a Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) support stations, supply depots, emergency orbital habitats, communications node, planetary observation platform, etc. Such Starships will tend to be of the crewed Mars Return type since the automated Mars Base types can make riskier landing attempts - there are no settlers at stake in a cargo only landing.

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This core ship may also be docked a shield hull, a liner ship that remains in orbit. These liner hulls surround the crewed Starship. Their inflatable shielding modules are pressurized storage, using the structure, food, water and lightweight shielding foam to protect the central crewed vessel against GCRs (Galactic Cosmic Rays). Waste and refuse stored in bio-bricks is used as shielding after the food and consumables are used for the voyage. These valuable items (i.e. fertilizer and polymers for construction) can be landed in other ships or used in space on the orbital itself.

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**Mars Orbital / Shield G Type:** A spin gravity habitat in Mars orbit could be a valuable asset and it may be critical to long term crew health for those servicing orbital assets. There will be waves of ships arriving and interacting with orbital stations. The G type utility pod is also useful for doing work in space, perhaps helping service solar power infrastructure via telepresence from the ground. Since a liner shield hull serving as an orbital station does not need to apply frequent thrust it could be rigged for tether gravity most of the time.

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**Engineering G Types**: Gravity tethers are a feasible technology, but they do present a docking issue. One solution is to slide a midpoint platform to the systems axis of rotation. Crew and supplies could be moved "up or down" the tether to the midpoint which could be spin stabilized relative to other vessels or stations. We do not consider other spin gravity architectures in this mission plan given their large scale and resource cost

* Design of an artificial gravity generating tethered satellite system: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1357968
* Fixed-time terminal sliding mode control of spinning tether system for artificial gravity environment in high eccentricity: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576520301417

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**Variant Engine Configurations:** The standard Starship has three sea level raptor engines and three vacuum optimized raptors for a total of six main engines. Given the three sea level engines are not strictly required at any time on the mission to the surface of Mars a ship that remains on Mars by design does not need them. The rocket equation has a domino effect: the more engine mass one carries, the more structure is required to mount them, the more plumbing, the more propellant is required to push all that mass. Eliminate major components and that mass fraction can be used for more payload - more cargo to Mars. There may be other configurations that can avoid carrying unnecessary mass and we will explore them. Want to know more?

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Solar Spacecraft

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

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Dedicated Earth To Orbit (ETO) Starships are busy during the time between convoys: launching a variety of solar ships and associated supplies into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Our solar electric and solar thermal ships stay in space, true spacecraft, are vital to making the mission work. SpaceX Starships are the landers for our convoys, but solar electric and solar thermal spacecraft - vessels that can not land in a deep gravity well - have superior specific impulse (see the Delta-V budget at the end of this section) and this allows more cargo going to Mars per ETO launch.

**Solar Electric Power-Freighters:** Launching from Earth to Orbit Starships these Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) arrays are their own ships. These ships are engineered with many common components and the same starship launch mounts as the Solar Moth Freighters and Solar Shield Liners, the entire family of solar ships being developed in parallel. Solar electric propulsion is proven and Starships do not need to boost them to appropriate transfer orbits as uncrewed vessels can spend months slowly spiraling outward. Krypton and argon are low cost remass options, with argon available from the Martian atmosphere. These ships are superior automated freighters compared to solar moth types when past the orbit of Mars and where planetary gravity and weaker sunlight does not hinder them.

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Note that solar power beamed from space requires rectenna power receiver arrays be landed on Mars by ship. The mass savings from use of solar electric propulsion and not having to land the panel arrays is, however, another excellent way of boosting the effective payload mass supporting the settlement on mars - in this case from orbit. Depending on the configuration and time horizons automated solar electric freighters may be more cost effective than solar thermal ones, though both technologies are required overall.

* **Nagata Class Power-Freighter:** Want to know more?

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**Liner Electric Return Architecture (LERA):** Liners that must be returned to earth orbit may use the solar electric freighters (above) and ISRU reaction mass present (argon, water, carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) available to the settlement. The Solar Shield Liners (below) can be returned to Earth capture orbit for resupply and another voyage to Mars. These ships would be stripped of some modular components (reflectors, rigging, thermal engine core, power converters, solar arrays) and most consumables. Energy efficient but long trajectories such as ballistic capture are viable for the unscrewed return. Neither the solar electric freighters acting as tugs nor the liner spaceframes need be modified in any permanent way. LERA assumes that any personnel returning from Mars do not intend to rejoin the settlement population, at which point generational risks of radiation exposure do not compound themselves.

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**Pulsed Inductive Thrusters (PIT) / FARAD:** Our solar electric spacecraft will likely use a form of electrodeless plasma engine.

* **PIT:** A pulsed inductive thruster (PIT) is a type of ion thruster - a plasma propulsion engine that uses perpendicular electric and magnetic fields to accelerate a propellant with no electrode. These engines can use a variety of propellants including water, ammonia, carbon dioxide and xenon among others. All of these propellants are available on Mars and / or Phobos.
	+ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsed\_inductive\_thruster
	+ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317700959\_Electrodeless\_plasma\_thrusters\_for\_spacecraft\_A\_review
* **FARAD:** The Faraday Accelerator with Radio-frequency Assisted Discharge (FARAD), is a lower-power alternative to the PIT that is suitable for space operation using current technologies and lower power levels.
	+ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20090001283
	+ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ianrit/PIT/PolzinThesis.pdf
	+ http://toc.proceedings.com/03458webtoc.pdf
	+ https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/17025/1/The%20use%20of%20Magnetic%20Fields%20to%20Create%20High%20Speed%20Plasma%20Jets%20Final%2020%20July%202017.pdf
	+ https://alfven.princeton.edu/research/past/ssfarad
	+ https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a494710.pdf

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**Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET):** A possible third candidate for electric propulsion is the MET engine.

* https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final\_submissions/1358

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**Ballistic Capture Trajectories For Mars:**

* https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.8856
* https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-way-to-reach-mars-safely-anytime-and-on-the-cheap/

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**Maximizing Solar Array Fraction / Cost of Propellant:** The power-freighters employed in our mission architecture will end up as SBSP satellites in Mars orbit. Therefore, a primary design goal for these solar electric craft is to maximize the amount of solar array delivered to Mars orbit for a given propulsion system. Overall cost still needs to be considered, so expensive reaction mass like xenon is not to be employed. Relative cost of reaction mass is also a factor in their operation as freighters or tugs in Earth orbit. Lastly, engine and propellant type should be chosen to allow resupply of the system in Mars orbit. As it is likely a solar electric craft will use its drive to station keep, ISRU propellant strategies will extend the service life of the solar power satellites.

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**Solar Thermal Power-Freighters:** These automated versions of the 1960s Solar Moth design, updated with mid-2020s technology such as a bi-modal ammonia / water (perhaps methane) engine and sterling generators, accompany the convoys as cargo carriers, tankers and orbital SBSP assets. These are spacecraft that never land on Mars, Earth or Luna and deposit cargo in orbit of Mars or on it's ultra-low gravity moons. Though developed with some common components used in purely solar electric spacecraft, these ships are critical to the mission as they form a support infrastructure for the solar shield liners (below). Ideally related solar thermal technologies for ISRU hydrogen production and other industrial processes may also be developed using drive components as modular tech. Note that purely solar electric vessels may be boosted by solar thermal modules in a hybrid configuration so they can make use of the Oberth effect or variant orbital trajectories.

* **Draper Class Power-Freighter:** Want to know more?

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**Orbital Docks**: Except when loaded perishable cargoes (i.e. food) the freighters can stay near Earth in protected simple "docks", large fabric structures that shield against the wear and tear of solar thermal cycling and micro-meteors. Such docks could also be deployed in Mars orbit. Both ammonia and water can be stored as ice (or pykrete) in the long term, making for safe orbital depots and stations since these materials shield against radiation and impactors. If employed liquid hydrogen stored in zero boil off tanks will also be protected in orbital docks.

* **Meng Class Orbital Dock:** Want to know more?

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**Solar Thermal Engine State of the Art:** The specific impulse (Isp) of solar thermal technologies, the ability to use reaction mass such as water, ammonia and methane, although still on the benchtop are proven to work. Refinements will make then better over time. Water will cap at approximately Isp 190s, and hydrogen (though impractical due to huge tank volumes) is the upper bound at Isp 917s. Ammonia has hardware working at Isp 386s, already exceeding the efficiency of vacuum methalox engines. Ammonia has a theoretical upper bound approaching Isp 600 due to the large amount of hydrogen produced i its thermal dissociation. Methane, the fuel readily synthesized on Mars, has similar theoretical performance. Applied engineering will refine solar thermal propulsion and it open up Mars even the belt given good reflector design. Some key links for the available tech:

* Ammonia for Solar Thermal Propulsion: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235419782\_A\_Model\_for\_Ammonia\_Solar\_Thermal\_Thruster
* Nitrogen on Mars: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/abs/where-is-the-nitrogen-on-mars/72F576A1E045B0CAB83216B5D69870A6
* Rhenium Solar Thermal Rocket: http://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/10/liquid-rhenium-solar-thermal-rocket.html?m=1
* Solar Thermal Rocket: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar\_thermal\_rocket

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**Solar Shield Liners:** Our concept is to use solar thermal (Ammonia / Methane / Water Trimodal Solar Moth - 917s Isp / 386s(+) Isp / 190s Isp) spacecraft that dock with and shield the core 9 meter class Starship. These orbit assembled ships consist of 7 x 100 ton (approx. wet mass) modules plus 2 x 500 ton capacity ammonia propellant block tanks. The 7 reinforced inflatable modules are structured to surround the core crewed ship while it is docked for planetary transit. Using their solar thermal drives for a significant part of the interplanetary voyage while the crewed Starship uses its raptors to land (or ascend) could provide an overall higher delta-V due to the relatively high ISP of solar thermal drives. The massive solar thermal reflectors and drive section Stirling power converters of the solar moth type engine also provides a ready made space based solar power (SBSP) satellite. This undocked transit hull that stays in orbit while the core ship lands on Mars but supplies the settlement with microwave power.

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The basic Starship design is not well suited to a low radiation voyage so we build a safe passenger liner. Shielding against Galactic Cosmic Rays GCRs requires many meters of shielding and in the case of 9 meter class Starships: our modular approach. Though it is quite possible to survive exposure to deep space voyage GCR doses the issues concerning settlers are long term genetic damage and health effects still unknown to us - with generational risks. Taking the radiation does is acceptable for explorers but not settlers joining a small population.

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A composite docked ship, core and secondary (solar thermal transit) hulls, can also provide enough cargo capacity for other important mission capabilities. Supplies for an emergency free return trajectory may be possible with rationing. Onboard greenhouses providing a limited selection of fresh produce to supplement rations and study exo-agronomy is also possible. It should also be noted that automated solar thermal ships can serve as fuel depots, component (reflectors, sterling engines) replacement sources and work in orbit as SBSP satellites. Ammonia is easy to handle and store over the long term. These ships also serve as ready made space stations for various purposes such as maintenance of other orbital assets as they have two airlocks.

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**Bio-Bricks:** These modular storage containers attach to form a brick wall, for rack-less storage inside the ship. They begin their service life as rations and supplies, ending their service life storing dehydrated waste and refuse. In either form they provide much of the hydrogen rich, low-z radiation dehydrated shielding for the ship. In emergencies blocks at the end of their service life can be ejected from the ship to reduce total mass.

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**Block Tanks:** These liquid ammonia or water remass tanks keep the propellant liquid but also serve to process attached blocks of frozen pykrete (stabilized propellant ice) into liquid for use by the engines. These reaction mass blocks are stored in or near the tanks themselves and if necessary tanks (or blocks) handled via robotic work spiders if not directly mounted on the tank intake. Controlled liquefaction of the solid propellant block provides liquid fuel - fed from an intermediate tank to the engine.

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**Inflatable Modules:** Proving to be strong, durable, low mass and easily deployable inflatable habitat modules are now proven on the ISS:

* Bigelow Commercial Space Station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow\_Commercial\_Space\_Station
* Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow\_Expandable\_Activity\_Module, https://russianspaceweb.com/beam.html
* NASA Transhab Project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransHab

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**Shielded Optical Greenhouses:** Using fiber optics or other light pipe technology a greenhouse in space does not have pressure / structural / radiation concerns that come with large window areas. A dome, for example, is mostly delicate window area and provides little shielding against radiation. Radiation can easily take a straight line path to the interior. Using a light pipe or equivalent (fiber optics, periscope mirrors, light tunnels), collects sunlight outside and can direct it through thick layers of shielding.

Like conventional greenhouses systems these can be passive, reducing load on electrical systems. Careful thermal design can allow these spaces to be warmed by waste heat, again a passive operating mode. Given they are radiation shielded, they are also thermally insulated.

* Radiation Protection: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation\_protection#Radiation\_shielding
* Light Tubes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light\_tube

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**Robotic Asteroid Prospector (RAP) Mission:** This NASA mission plan for the RAP is an excellent design reference for our solar thermal ships - among many useful engineering items. PDF Link: NASA archive

* **Drummer Class Explorer:** Want to know more?
* **Kamal Class Science Probe:** Want to know more?

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**Stirling Engine Power Converters:** Power converters to generate electric or mechanical power from heat are essential for solar thermal ships, ground vehicles and industry. Stirling engines are efficient, reliable, have long service lifespans and can be repaired. NASA power converter study: https://science.nasa.gov/technology/technology-highlights/high-efficiency-stirling-convertor-demonstrates-long-term-performance

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**Multimodal Solar Thermal Engine Design:** The use of zero boil off, inflatable hydrogen tanks is possible around Mars but may not be practical. Ammonia is affordable on Earth, though may be difficult to produce on or near Mars. Hydrogen also has superior performance (Isp 917s vs 386(+)s) relative to ammonia or methane. It should be noted that the Isp for ammonia could reach 590+ so it is an appealing propellant. The infrastructure for handling H is, however, problematic due to the low density of liquid hydrogen and the massive tanks that result while Ammonia and water ice are easy to store. Is hydrogen worth it around Mars since in situ production is easy? Water launched from the Martian surface can be electrolyzed in space with solar power If Phobos has large reservoirs of water ice that can be used for maneuvers or station keeping in orbit, making hydrogen less attractive unless engines are multimodal.

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Finally Methane is the option we favor given it will be manufactured on Mars. It is possible that a solar thermal engine could thermally decompose CH4 - using methane in a manner similar to ammonia decomposition. Performance of such a drive between 600s and 670s Isp, though dissociating the four hydrogen atoms in each molecule could provide good overall performance. Studies have been done on methane for use in Nuclear Thermal Rockets (NTRs) and our Solar Thermal Rocket (STR) and hydrocarbon thermal decomposition is well understood by industry in general.

The USS Hope Design uses a conservative figure of 580s Isp that can stand in for either ammonia or methane. In the case of methane propellant this also accounts for real engineering limitations that may be encountered. In any event methalox only offers a theoretical maximum of 350s, poor in comparison.

Related technical resources:

* Solar Thermal Rocket Visualization by Nick Stevens: https://vimeo.com/256398888
* Starship Compendium: https://www.elonx.net/super-heavy-starship-compendium/

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**Luck 7 Solar Shield Liner - Concept Sketches:** This is the reference design for our passenger liner and our USS Hope Mars Mission Analog. This is currently are in early concept evaluation. This Lucky 7 Class Solar Shield Liner is a composite ship assembled in space. It consists of six shield hull sections (inflatable wedges) plus an engine section with thermal core shown retracted. Reflector masts & rigging, roll out solar arrays, greenhouse light collector and klystron power transmitter show as stowed. Engine section reflector skirt shown installed. Starship docks bow to bow. Airlock tunnels shown in fully docked (extended) position. Note these airlock tunnel extend from the Liner core (Avasarala Class) ships and dock to the airlock nodes of the shield hull. The extendable airlock tunnels also allow safe crew transfer with other similarly equipped Starships and stations.

USS Hope Solar Shield Liner - Concept Sketch - Bow View - Attribution: Chris J. Kent, Sunhaven Research GroupUSS Hope Solar Shield Liner - Concept Sketch - Ventral View Attribution: Chris J. Kent, Sunhaven Research Group…

**Delta-V & Solar Ships:** Our propulsion choices are influenced by two factors: change in velocity (delta-V) and the time required to transit the deep planetary gravity wells. Electric drives are slow because they provide such small amounts of thrust it takes them a long time to effect the large delta-Vs required to get in or out of a deep gravity well. Automated ships carrying non-perishable cargo can endure years in space, using slow but efficient electric propulsion. Note the delta-V map (inset right) shows how most of the delta-V budget for a trip between planets is used to overcome planetary gravity.

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Electric drives are too slow for use on crewed ships because the mass of food, water, consumables, etc. for such long trips is more payload than the ships can carry. Solar thermal or chemical propulsion (i.e. methalox, hydrolox) is fast, providing greater thrust with less efficient use of propellant - the mass of which must be launched from Earth or Mars at great cost. Solar thermal drives are more efficient than chemical systems but do not have enough thrust to land on Earth or Mars. Thus crewed ships use solar thermal tech to travel between worlds in space and chemical thrusters for planetary landings or launches. The rocket equation simplifies to a few factors that can be easily calculated and may aid in understanding the delta-V map.. Note that the map shown is approximate because low-thrust and high-thrust drives have other differences in practice. Map abbreviations are as follows

* Escape orbits with low pericentre – **C3 = 0**
* Geostationary orbit – **GEO**
* Geostationary transfer orbit – **GTO**
* Earth–Moon L5 Lagrangian point – **L5**
* Low Earth orbit – **LEO**
* *Lunar orbit* means low lunar orbit
* Red arrows show where optional aerobraking/aerocapture can be performed in that particular direction, black numbers give delta-v in km/s that apply in either direction. Lower-delta-v transfers than shown can often be achieved, but involve rare transfer windows or take significantly longer, see: fuzzy orbital transfers.
* Electric propulsion vehicles going from Mars C3 = 0 to Earth C3 = 0 without using the Oberth effect need a larger Delta-v of between 2.6 km/s and 3.15 km/s. Not all possible links are shown.
* The Delta-v for C3 = 0 to Mars transfer must be applied at pericentre, i.e. immediately after accelerating to the escape trajectory, and do not agree with the formula above which gives 0.4 from Earth escape and 0.65 from Mars escape.
* The figures for LEO to GTO, GTO to GEO, LEO to GEO and LEO to the sun are all approximations inconsistent with each other in various cases.

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

…

## Analysis & Administration

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

(Champions' Club / Site Map / YouTube)

Mars Deca Direct is a planning effort that needs your ideas, your vision of what a great town on Mars could be like. In academic terms it is an extended literature review the establishes a lower practical resource limit for Mars settlement.

**This is a massive list:** We take it one topic at a time. We examine many aspects of what will make life worth living on Mars - what will make our Martian town a great place to live. instead of speculating on unknown future capabilities this mission profile benchmarks all equipment, designs, information, etc. against current working hardware, mature research and prototypes that exist now. This also future proofs the mission plan. Advances in tech make the plan more viable, adding reliability, payload mass, service lifespan, etc. In the future technology will gain extra features as well but we choose to plan a mission that is safer, technology that requires less maintenance, etc. Together we will solve the big problems.

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**Admin Pages** in the link list below are where you can find project status information. Currently all project pages operate on an honor system so please take care when you edit. Together to the moon, Mars and the stars!

**…**

**Below the Break:** This is the mid-point for your Deca Direct overview - before this point we've done an intro and a discussion of the various ships and spacecraft. That part of the mission plan is where we have the most certainty and the fewest options. After this point, the break as they say, comes the settlement plan. The town we build is constrained by how much payload and power we can provide via orbital infrastructure. However, aside from the Grav Train, the rolling stock and some general planning this is your place. If your idea, architecture, industry, art, etc. does not make it onto a convoy manifest within the first decade it can still be built. Try to keep things realistic, the engineering basis still applies, but lease show your dreams of Mars and beyond!

**…**

**Artists Needed:** One of the fields we need to emphasize is artistic expression - art is important. If you are an artist and you dream of the moon, Mars and the stars then we need you!

Your expression can communicate visions of the future in an instant and it will be a gift to the world - everything here is destined for the public domain with attribution preserved. From well drawn sketches, to 2D and 3D art we need to show our ships, vehicles, buildings, vistas and more. We are drawing from real world engineering so you don't need a technical background - we can find reference images of the technology for you to use. We cannot publish other people's work here without permission so we handle looking over those reference images in private communication - we highly respect those artists as we respect you.

This is the posting page for all project art on the site: Admin Page (Art & CAD Files - Deca Direct)

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**Collaborative Note Pages:** In the note pages below all of us - we need you - examine multiple convoy structure using our technology set and ship designs. The settlement planning informs what cargo needs to be sent. As the literature review and planning evolves an equilibrium will be found in the form of detailed designs, cargo manifests, timelines, schedules, etc. As the working notes below evolve, admins will edit, expand and link materials to this top level mission profile. This is a living document that will progress organically. It is also an honor system so please uphold the rules of this wiki. General technology, system & mission topics to examine are as follows:

* Additive Manufacturing (Notes)
* Admin Page (Announcements - Deca Direct)
* Admin Page (Art & CAD Files - Deca Direct)
* Admin Page (General Notes - Deca Direct)
* Admin Page (Team Bios - Deca Direct)
* Admin Page (Work Breakdown Structure - Deca Direct)
* Agronomy Systems (Notes)
* Architectural Integration with Other Efforts (Notes)
* Avenue Safety Stations (Notes)
* Big Problems (Notes)
* Bio-Contingency (Notes)
* Cargo Handling Systems (Notes)
* Communications & Sensors (Notes)
* Construction Systems (Notes)
* Convoy Composition Planning (Notes)
* Crew Complements (Notes)
* Dust Mitigation Tech (Notes)
* Early Manufacturing Options (Notes)
* Economies of Scope and Scale (Notes)
* Education and Publication Strategy (Notes)
* End to End Lifeboat Strategy (Notes)
* Food Supplies (Notes)
* General Maintenance (Notes)
* General Settlement Modules (Notes)
* Governance & Security (Notes)
* Gifted Fission Reactors (Notes)
* Gravity Train Ring System (Notes)
* Habitat Rovers (Notes)
* Heavy Surface Equipment (Notes)
* Hygiene and Dust Mitigation (Notes)
* Inflatable Habitats & Vehicle Cabs (Notes)
* Interplanetary Comms Orbitals (Notes)
* Ion Drive Power Freighters (Notes)
* ISRU Concrete (Notes)
* ISRU Equipment (Notes)
* ISRU General Industrial Chemistry (Notes)
* ISRU Glass (Notes)
* ISRU Insulating Mineral Foam Manufacturing (Notes)
* ISRU Metals (Notes)
* ISRU Perchlorates (Notes)
* ISRU Reaction Mass / Fuel Manufacturing (Notes)
* ISRU Solar Panel Manufacturing (Notes)
* Main Street Tunnel (Notes)
* Mars Base Starship Deconstruction Options (Notes)
* Minimum Redundancy Review (Notes)
* Morale & Recreation Systems (Notes)
* Mycology (SMART Reference)
* Nutrition & Menu Planning (Notes)
* Passage & Payload for Other Efforts (Notes)
* Permanent Structures (Notes)
* Power Grid (Notes)
* Pressure Suits (Notes)
* Prospecting Systems (Notes)
* Pulsed Inductive Thruster (PIT) / FARAD (Notes)
* Radiation Shielding Strategies (Notes)
* Sample Return Strategy (Notes)
* Settlement Site Option: Eastern Valles Marineris (Notes) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles\_Marineris
* Settlement Site Option: Terra Sirenum (Notes) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra\_Sirenum
* Science Systems (Notes)
* Settlement Economics (Notes)
* Settler Skillsets & Education (Notes)
* Settler Task Schedules (Notes)
* Sickbay Module (Notes)
* Site Selection & Planning (Notes)
* Solar Electric Power Ships (Notes)
* Solar Moth Power-Freighters (Notes)
* Solar Panel Tracking Systems (Notes)
* Solar Shield Passenger Liner (Notes)
* Space Based Solar Power (Notes)
* Starship Repair (Notes)
* Starship Type - Earth Return (Notes)
* Starship Type - Mars Base (Notes)
* Starship Type - Mars Orbital (Notes)
* Starship Type - Mars Return Liner (Notes)
* Stirling Engine Infrastructure (Notes)
* Systems Repair (Notes)
* Tech Vitamins Inventory (Notes)
* Telepresence Robotic Systems (Notes)
* USS Hope "Lucky 7" Solar Shield Liner Analog Design (Notes)
* Vehicles on Mars (Notes)
* Vehicles on Phobos (Notes)
* Verifiable Audits & Inspections (Notes)
* Water Storage & Distribution System (Notes)
* Weighted Clothing and Duty Suit Design (Notes)

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Several primary criteria for every general category above must be examined:

* Automation Strategies (Settlers need time for science and balanced living.)
* Cost of Items (The settlement must work economically, in both local and Earth logistics terms.)
* Electrical Power (How does this affect our electrical budget?)
* Environmental Interactions (Mars is hostile.)
* Failure Modes (Things will go wrong.)
* Functions & Products (Define primary, additional and situational - also products, byproducts, etc.)
* Maintenance and Repairs (Settlers can't run to the store when something breaks.)
* Mass of Items (Convoy payload is a major constraint.)
* Operational Schedules (Settlers need time for science and balanced living.)
* Service Lifespans (Things will wear out and we need data on when.)
* Thermal Effect (How does this work with solar thermal collectors, allow cogeneration, require cooling, etc.?)

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**Pottery Kiln Sample Analysis:** Let us suppose a volunteer ceramic artist suggests a pottery kiln as an item. Going through an analysis on the criteria above can help us establish if this is possible in the first decade of the plan, when to send the components, etc. Want to know more?

...

Champions change the world. Join the club.

…

**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

…

## The Settlement

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

(Champions' Club / Site Map / YouTube)

To settle Mars you must plan a Martian Settlement. The general technology & systems categories above must match the site and structure plans. The architecture and planning of the settlement is also designed to solve the **big problems** of self reliant settlement. Living and working in base type Starships will need to quickly transition into a life under radiation resistant regolith roofs or in shielded vehicles. The fewer excursions the better, so a shirt sleeve transit network will be necessary at any settlement scale that is sustainable.

*Away from Main Street and the Town Towers the new mining base strikes it rich...*

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**Mars Base Towers:** After landing the Mars Base type ships have large empty tanks. Their payload sections are full of equipment and supplies to be unloaded, also leaving empty spaces. The engines are sealed in fabric tents to keep them clean and these are bermed with regolith to stabilize the ships. The empty tanks spaces have doors cut and are filled with stacked, inflatable habitat modules. The sides and top of these modules are "sand-bagged" with regolith, for radiation proof walls and roof. The resulting interior habitats have circular decks and module cores with spiral stairs, core diameter being 2 meters. Internal wall diameter is 7.6 meters. So the internal radius between core and wall, the "room width" is 2.8 meters. Tank head-domes are used as their own chambers, with regolith filling in the walls between dome and outer hull. The ground level engine tents are useful mars-pressure workspaces and are arranged so the engines can be used later, for replacement parts or swapped out to other ships. The regolith berms are finished so that there are gentle ramps sloping up to the main doors and a good platform for the ship's crane is left clear. Flaps, associated exterior gear, motors, etc. are stripped for planned use elsewhere.

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The upper cargo sections of the ship also require sandbagging with regolith for radiation proof walls. However, these sections are built for use after unloading, including installed equipment that doesn't need to be set up. These spaces are kept larger, so that communal and work spaces can be more airy and comfortable. High look-out windows use regolith shields and periscope mirrors to achieve safe viewing.

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Though most of the Mars Base type ships that land will do so at the settlement site, the first few may not. It is entirely possible initial landing sites are unsuitable or spread out on purpose to allow prospector droids to locate mineral resources, etc. High quality stone that can be quarried would make excellent building material, as would some of the concrete type mixes that have been developed. The settlement will need to have ample water nearby and locating it as close to the equator as possible maximizes ground based solar power. Until the resources in an area have been verified primary settlement cannot begin. Base ships that are too far away can always be dismantled for the valuable components and stainless steel of the hulls.

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**Main Street:** The core settlement plan is structured around the first ring tunnel, including the grav-train track, known as Main Street. The ring tunnels are some combination of cut and cover trenches, prefab components, cut stone, ISRU concrete and regolith construction. Additive manufacturing, as being favored by NASA, will likely be the method that droids employ to construct the architecture that cannot be simply excavated. Further ring tunnels and avenues extending from rings connect the rings. The sunward outer and inner edges of the tunnel connect to surface green domes or even integrate greenhouse modules. Inside, part of the tunnel is row housing - town houses. Building main street is building the core of a town.

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These circular streets and their avenues provide a radiation safe, low dust environment for working, walking, riding, etc. while wearing a basic Martian pressure suit. With little or no dust it is safe to walk the street in a dust storm. The tunnels and adjacent structures have regolith covered roofs and limited sky-views so long term radiation exposure is not a factor when "outside" in the tunnels. Geometry of the architecture ensures that radiation from the cosmos has no direct path to the interior, while views of the landscape are possible. Resource Links:

* Cut and Cover Tunnels: http://www.railsystem.net/cut-and-cover/
* 3D Printing with Martian Biolith https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/martian-biolith-a-sweet-bioinspired-composite-for-closed-loop-extraterrestrial-manufacturing/
* Martian biolith: A bioinspired regolith composite for closed-loop extraterrestrial manufacturing https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238606
* NASA Announces $100,000 Winners of Virtual 3D-Printed Mars Habitats https://www.space.com/3d-printed-mars-habitats-nasa-prizes.html
* Concete made from materials only on the red planet https://phys.org/news/2016-01-martian-concrete-materials-red-planet.html

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**Safety Stations:** Also know as avenue stations, these are places of safety and community in town. Avenue stations are spaced regularly around the ring street tunnels, with public, security and private spaces. Things can go very wrong on a hostile planet like Mars and the stations provide both community and emergency services, even to visitors from other settlements. Providing comfortable communal meeting spaces will be of critical importance for town social life. Note that seating areas will tend to be located in the fixed structures of the town, such as avenue stations, to maximize standing room on the gravity train.

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**Gravity Trains:** A set of two ring tracks in the ring tunnel, running in a radiation safe environment, is the heart of our Martian Town. No one knows how much gravity human beings need in the long term but there is ample indication that even a few hours a day at Earth's standard 1G will be enough. The circular track is runs train cars that can angle their decks by banking. The effect can generate centripetal acceleration at the required angle and strength to combine with Martian gravity into a composite earth standard gravity. The trains can stop, switch and be services at avenue safety stations. Cars are inflatable habitat modules and 'rails' are Martian concrete surfaced with stainless steel from deconstructed Starships.

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Grav train cars have spaces to socialize while standing, leaning, dancing etc., offices and workstations with standing desks and exercise facilities (gymnasium, sports, dance studios). People spend time in standing and moving in one gravity for maximum health benefit, with some small cabins reserved for those who need extended time in one g. Most furniture and fixtures will adjust to accommodate standing work positions and must light weight to minimize wear on the train system itself. Interior spaces can invoke familiar elements of architecture and also incorporate their systems hidden in plain sight - ventilation could be made to look like a fireplace and artificial light could be tuned to seem a skylight on Earth (see below).Time on a grav train is a town service that can earn income from visitors and host private business in the local economy.

* Artificial Gravity Website: http://artificial-gravity.com/
* An Artificial-Gravity Space-Settlement Ground-Analogue Design Concept: https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/publications/35037/download/
* Inflatable space habitat: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable\_space\_habitat

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**Grand Views:** From some main street avenue stations there will be a great view of Mars. It will be a 1/3rd sky - 2/3rd Martian terrain view from large picture windows. These windows will be set back under regolith awnings so that people taking in the view do not receive a high radiation dose. This is achieved because the atmosphere along the horizon is thick relative to the viewing angle / angle of incident cosmic rays. The regolith on the roof and awning are complete radiation shields, as is the planet. These spaces will be home to establishments like pubs and pizzerias, because we want great pizza and pints. Some prime space next to the big windows will also be for public contemplation.

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Mirror film and tension frames will allow other windows in town to avoid radiation angles by a periscope effect. A person taking in the view may stand under the shielding layer (red in the diagram) and avoid any radiation since it travels in straight lines. By optical illusion two mirrors will seem like a window. The periscope arrangement also allows for multiple windows (blue in the diagram), each sealed to minimize atmosphere loss An even simpler arrangement provides a skylight view reflected from a single mirror. This natural light alone will be of tremendous aesthetic and psychological value in otherwise confined quarters. Skylight reflectors are also how radiation safe greenhouses will work.

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* Radiation Protection Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation\_protection#Radiation\_shielding
* Periscopes Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periscope

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**Shield Walls:** Though the winds of Mars do not blow with force, they do carry dust. To shield against a portion of it, to help prevent dunes forming where solar panels and greenhouses are, the top of the ring is a low shield wall. This wall will also incorporate solar panels or thin film mirror collectors for solar thermal or optical greenhouse systems. These would be on top of the ring berms and likely be a Martian masonry framed fabric fence.

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**Self-sufficiency, Scale and Generational Time:** The scale of our settlement plan is such that self sufficiency for a small population is likely achievable within three decades. This is especially important because projects that stretch beyond a generation are difficult to sustain. The people involved will retire, family fortunes will wane, geopolitics will shift, etc. so we essentially have a flexible deadline for founding the town. As we work through the decades, convoy size may need to increase in order to establish all the elements of a minimal robust infrastructure. When we plan further decades, it will not solely be about the town. By that time our settlers will need to have some of the advanced mission options running. The town will be part of a larger space economy, ensuring it can not only survive but thrive.

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**Green Domes & Halls:** These large inflatable greenhouse domes are set into the Mainstreet ring, either internal or external edge depending on the direction of the sun. These are food forest Permaculture domes designed for the greatest biodiversity and long term biome stability. There are mushroom farms under under the dome deck and everything is planted in raised planters. The end result is large domes full of food forest with ample walking room in a fractional pressure atmosphere. These domes are also set into the ring berm edges in the fashion of grans views, so the shade side (not sun side) of the dome forms an effective window on the seat ring. Supplemental lighting is required in the dome, which has approximately 35% of the Sunlight relative to Earth (45% normal solar incidence, plus losses due to the dust shedding insulated composite window panels). This is mostly blue LED lighting that balances the photosynthesis needs of the plants (red is provided by Martian ambient light, which the windows are tuned to pass well) and also simulates an Earth like daylight spectrum for human benefit. These domes provide a time (radiation dose) limited opportunity for people to walk in an open natural (biophilic) environment and also a regular (radiation safe) street view of the forests for anyone passing by inside the street ring. General Mars agronomy resources:

* EDEN ISS Space Analog Greenhouse: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00656/full
* Sunlight on Mars: https://www.firsttheseedfoundation.org/resource/tomatosphere/background/sunlight-mars-enough-light-mars-grow-tomatoes/

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When power budgets and tunnel space allows, greenhouses will be built with light tubes (optical collectors) or with purely artificial lighting. These spaces will be under a thick regolith tunnel roof and operate as radiation safe shirtsleeve environments - pressurized to match the adjoining chambers. Much of the main street tunnel chambers running parallel to the tracks will be green halls. The full circle grave train tunnel will take years to construct but along with it will come protected agricultural capacity to hedge the population against agricultural failure of the more delicate earlier dome systems. Aside from some robust lighting, active ventilation and long duration battery backups, passive design ensures these green halls also survive power grid catastrophes. Want to know more?

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**Solar Thermal Power Systems:** An option for in situ manufacturing and a vital backup to battery banks is a life support system driven by thermal reservoir. Solar thermal can exceed the efficiency of most PV cells, drive thermal industrial chemistry or materials processing directly and the co-generation of heat to keep the settlement warm is essentially free. Stirling engines, also used across the settlement infrastructure, allows for both mechanical and electrical supply with high efficiency. With additive manufacturing and standard machining replacement parts and even entire systems could be produced on Mars. Some resource links:

* Concentrated Solar Power Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated\_solar\_power
* Performance analysis of a lunar based solar thermal power system with regolith thermal storage https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544216303796
* Simulation of a thermal solar power plant operating on Mars under clear sky and dust storm conditionshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576501001370
* Smelting iron ore with the power of the sun https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/iron-ore-solar-em5596/

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**VR Heavy Equipment & Duty Suits:** To eliminate radiation risk and maximize safety most construction equipment is in VR drone format. Mainstreet has overhangs large enough to curtain off, making for a low-dust, low-rad maintenance shed environment. The equipment can be modular to a great extent, graders, loaders, dozers, backhoes, already have attachments in current tech.

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Everyone on Mars will have to know how to operate VR equipment, rovers, airlocks, suits, equipment backups, and anything related. Most people will have some training in how to maintain and repair this vital gear. Most mobile equipment will have life support packs and at least emergency pressure tents so people outside can connect or climb in when needed. Communication with this equipment will have multiple redundant modes, direct optical pulse, local radio, satellite radio, with two modules of each. Parts ate in hot swap modules where possible so they can be taken inside for detail work. As little as possible is done in a pressure suit, though an emergency duty suit is often worn unless in a triple redundant habitat. The duty suit works as a comfortable and durable shirtsleeve work outfit but serves as a functional pressure suit in emergency. Quick flip-connect gloves and a folding pressure hoodie are attached to the suit in neck and wrist pouches. They don't need to be used if better gloves and helmet are attached. In one gravity the extra equipment of wear6the duty suit would be cumbersome but in one third grav it is light and actually helps maintain fitness. Air and water supplies are also emergency unless better units are connected.

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Duty suits have docking hatches for washroom functions. Elastic seal undergarments keep moisture put of the rest of the suit so the washroom appliances that dock with the suit can wash and air dry after nature is satisfied. No catheters or complete un-suiting are required.

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**Work Spiders:** These are the standard micrograv or low grav telepresence VR unit, a robotic spider that crawls on the outside of vessels and stations. These have interfaces very similar to the VR construction equipment or other rolling stock used on Mars - so much so that the development is conducted as a single project.

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Settlers will be operating work spiders from the surface for many orbital and Phobos operations, using the same VR terminals that control ground base equipment and vehicles. If equipped with thruster packs the work spiders may be used for orbital assembly, maintenance, EVAs and as a gravity tether unit (the rigging line would be supplied by the vessel or station). Limited preventative AI will compensate for a certain amount of light lag based latency but such factors will likely be a bottleneck on effective control range. Use of tethered rigging lines, grippers on handholds and AI movement routines (such as jumping from place to place with a rig line) minimizes the use of RCS thruster pack propellant.

* Avatar X-Prize https://avatar.xprize.org/prizes/avatar
* Gateway Foundation How to Build a Spaceport Part 2 https://youtu.be/CRB-tLF1npo

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**Rolling Stock:** To avoid a maintenance nightmare and make production of parts viable all surface vehicles, from ATV and Mars Crawler rovers to Construction Equipment and the Grav Trains should be built with a common technology set. This will eventually be a backwards compatibility arrangement - as it is unlikely the Grav Train will run in the first decade and its technology will be more advanced than vehicles sent in the first decade.

...

All vehicles have a standard VR telepresence system which also includes a sensor suite. This allows prospecting for resources, inspection, search & rescue, etc. These vehicles also all support small all terrain rolling droids, though the droid miner and hub specialize. The miner focuses on processing and transporting their regolith or ore and the hub is a miniature VR repair shop / support tender for the droids. The Droid M, or Max, is a larger centaur type wheeled droid that is a fully capable telepresence unit with humanoid arms and hands that replaces surface EVAs. Max can also be ridden by two suited humans or take one in a stretcher and carries emergency life support (power, air, water, first aid, patch kits, suit tools). Max is also vital for vehicle maintenance in the field, so comes equipped for common events like changing tires or swapping power converter hookups (methalox or electric plug in). All of the droids and vehicles are semi-autonomous but will call out for VR control in difficult situations. Operators can typically control whole fleets of small droids and a few vehicles with software coordination.

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All of these vehicles will be as light as possible within the limits of cost, long service life and maintenance conditions on Mars - these can not be fragile machines. All vehicles and droids are electric though larger vehicles will not have high capacity battery packs. Instead larger vehicles are plug-in hybrids - operating on electric cables with short stints on battery or by burning methalox. The Shop Mobile Modular Unit (MMU) is actually a small deployable habitat workshop that includes a large methalox tank and power converter with electric cable hookup for vehicles - it can be the heart of a job site in the field. Some potential vehicles within the set:

* **ATV Rover -** Ashford Type: Want to know more?
* **Excavator -** Burton Type: Want to know more?
* **Droid Hub -** Miller Type: Want to know more?
* **Droid Miner -** Belleci Type: Want to know more?
* **Dry-Mason** - Delgado Type: Want to know more?
* **Droid-M Rover -** Mao Type: Want to know more?
* **Mars Crawler -** Savage Type: Want to know more?
* **Robo-Crane -** Imahara Type: Want to know more?
* **Observatory -** Stuart Type: Want to know more?
* **Shop MMU -** Hyneman Type: Want to know more?
* **Skid Loader -** Byron Type: Want to know more?
* **Small Rover -** Holden Type: Want to know more?
* **Train Car -** Richards Type: Want to know more?
* **Utility Node -** Chan Type: Want to know more?

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Space Based Solar Power

⁷Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

(Champions' Club / Site Map / YouTube)

…

Solar power satellites may be the only reliable solar power for our Martian settlement given long duration dust storms. These stations would also not risk landing, not require cleaning and could have continuous operation. These power stations also serve double duty by providing a large structure for interplanetary comms arrays. Large antennas are vital because bandwidth caps Mars to Earth are caps on the primary export of the settlement: data.

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These solar photovoltaic arrays are most easily deployed by being launched to an Earth-Mars transfer orbit by a normal Starship and then using the solar electric systems to power an efficient ion or plasma drive. See the Solar Spacecraft section for more.

* ESA SBSP Images: https://www.esa.int/ESA\_Multimedia/Images/2020/08/Space-based\_solar\_power
* Space Based Solar Power is for Mars, paper:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283152553\_Space\_Based\_Solar\_Power\_is\_for\_Mars
* SBSP & Microwave Klystron Transmission: https://www.academia.edu/2259307/Space\_solar\_power\_programs\_and\_microwave\_wireless\_power\_transmission\_technology
* SBSP Thread, NASA Spaceflight: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39583.0
* Solar Power on Mars: https://medium.com/swlh/solar-power-is-never-going-to-work-on-mars-and-everybody-knows-it-b2fb221722b1

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**Methane and Oxygen Production on Mars:** One of the larger draws on the settlement power grid will be the production of methane and liquid oxygen. This class of industrial activity will define the amount of power, thus the SBSP infrastructure, for the mission. Some resource links on the topic:

* Comparison of oxygen liquefaction methods for use on the Martian surface: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011227517302187
* Making Methane on Mars: https://news.uci.edu/2021/01/04/making-methane-on-mars/
* Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars\_Oxygen\_ISRU\_Experiment
* Sabatier Process on Mars: https://marspedia.org/Sabatier/Water\_Electrolysis\_Process

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## Type G Tether Pods

Innovation Education Creating Opportunity

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Deploying from the Starship on a long tether, this pod is the counterweight in a system that provides spin gravity for crews on a Starship. This tethered pod should also provide other capabilities, such as serving as a work-pod, a docking zip-line, or even a means of exploring asteroids with extremely low gravity. The tether pod can also serve as an emergency airlock vestibule for any docking port without its own lock.

* Design of an artificial gravity generating tethered satellite system: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1357968
* Fixed-time terminal sliding mode control of spinning tether system for artificial gravity environment in high eccentricity orbit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576520301417

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**High Isp + ISRU Reaction Control Systems (RCS):** To spin up the ship under gravity tether mode the RCS could be used. Cold gas or hypergolic thrusters are default options but the have low specific impulse. In situ resource utilization (ISRU) must also be considered as a factor. Cold gas systems could at least be refilled on Mars, but the problem of low efficiency remains. Investigation of an RCS system that is both efficient and can rely on in situ resources is warranted. In some cases reflector architecture for a solar thermal drive is spin stabilized. Again, a high efficiency RCS application would be useful to spin up or spin down such a vessel. The dynamics of a tethered craft spinning both around a mid-point and on the long axis of its tether (and possibly solar reflectors merit further investigation. Reaction wheels or control moment gyroscopes to add spin to a ship are also a possibility.

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Ammonia solar thermal systems provide a 386s Isp (theoretically higher, with improved engineering up to 590+) and propellant storage is compact, relatively simple. This is a candidate for RCS.

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Earth Return Architecture

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The design of Earth Return Starship types - those that will land on Earth - is not critical to our mission profile except as a way for the Mars bound ship types to avoid mounting unnecessary systems such as sea level raptor engines. They are important, however, as the construction of the Mars and Earth Return vessels is critical to supporting a local economy in the Hill Sphere (local Earth-Lunar space). The Mars Base and Mars Return type Starships in this scenario are all outfitted for a powered Mars landing, which is more controlled and less risky than relying entirely on aerodynamics. Thus the individual ships chances of a safe landing are high while the mission itself is also reinforced by the large number of Starships. On balance, the lack of sea level engines (plus associated components) and the extra propellant allowing for a powered Mars landing will be assumed to cancel each other out.

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The economic and industrial opportunities that will present themselves in the context of Earth orbit are vital for the settlement effort as a whole. In the first decade there is no substantial economy on the moon aside from small pilot projects and a Mars settlement will only have exports via data - perhaps a limited market for physical samples will exist but we must assume that science missions and nation state outposts will be collecting their own samples and collecting scientific data. Entertainment such as reality shows is a limited market and we can assume the settlement will not be alone in this market. So the settlement as a financial entity will need lunar, orbital and free space operations to generate profit. Institutional and public funding cannot be relied on for a sustainable settlement, though it is worth pursuing for growth capital.

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**Additive Manufacturing with Lunar Resources:** Though outside the scope of our analysis at this stage it is possible that limited lunar manufacturing and launch via mass drivers could significantly reduce the total cost of our solar spacecraft. The key to this will be progress on lunar 3D printing https://youtu.be/ir\_SLjykvRE and related ISRU technology. One route for raw materials such as iron, titanium and oxygen can be provided by is the FCC Cambridge process. Cast iron, sintered iron and or titanium powders, could be a useful source of parts. Lunar basalt can also be processed into components, even made into fibers, fabric and cable. These components can be used to make cargo containers and some form of mass driver - such as a mass sling - to deliver the cargo into nearby orbits.

* FCC Cambridge Process: https://lunarpedia.org/w/FFC\_Cambridge\_Process#Aluminum.2FSilicon.2FCalcium\_Production\_from\_Anorthite
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**Broadband Communications:** The major export of Mars will be data sent back to Earth. High bandwidth links provide a valuable service to sell other Martian settlements. These large communications arrays on Mars may benefit from or even require transceiver counterparts near Earth. Supporting these data links can be an excellent use for Mars Return Starships that remain near Earth, liners waiting in dock, etc. Earth return ships will then help with the service and resupply of these income earning space assets.

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**Project Persephone Plus:** Project Persephone is an orbital gardening project that could evolve into orbital agronomy. Using later versions of their orbitals to produce aeroponic crops and freeze dry them for later use could be a means to reduce cargo launched from Earth if the aeroponic feedstock minerals can be exported from lunar facilities at a cost lower than ETO cargo launch.

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Earthbase

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A terrestrial mission support facility that offers control services, troubleshooting, training and ongoing R&D is critical to the settlement. Though it need not be a single facility, Earthbase central would likely be located within convenient travel distance of the rocket factory producing our ships. Rapid coordination with SpaceX, other manufacturers and suppliers will be critical so geographic proximity will not be enough. Key representatives from companies across our supply chain would consult on site or via dedicated teleconference systems.

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## Mars Tourism & Media

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The high redundancy, high support, settlement orientation of Deca Direct opens up the distinct possibility of Mars tourism for the wealthy. Space tourists in the past have paid tens of millions of dollars for days on the ISS. The potential for episodic shows and documentaries also becomes a reality when a certain level of safety and a large enough population allows for a dedicated film crew on site. Though they would not fund Deca Direct, these sorts of tie-ins would be an important revenue source.

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Advanced Mission Options

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Though none of the options below will be highly developed within the first decade of settlement they are expected to have initial elements in place. Small scale test systems, foundational infrastructure, etc. should all have a place in our plan for 2031 to 2040. However, if a volunteer working group was so inspired, planning these using our ship designs and anticipated infrastructure would be of great value to the project. Once an advanced option is planned working backwards helps test the early settlement plan.

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**Asteroid Defense System:** The orbital assets around Mars and in high Earth orbits could be economically engaged as part of a larger asteroid defense system for Earth. The various solar spacecraft employed by the project and their relative positions would provide possible detection and response advantages vs. asteroid threats. Our family of solar spacecraft are designed for long service life and employ propellants such as ammonia and water that are easily stored over that long term. A typical solar electric or solar thermal freighter could serve as a gravity tractor, work spider robots could deploy thermal blankets to result in course altering solar heating, and more. The general capacity of our on orbit assets is flexible and capable enough to help defend the bulk of humanity from asteroid threats. Want to know more?

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**Astronomical Observatories:** Extensive orbital infrastructure around Mars or on Phobos could support colossal observatories. High bandwidth data links to Earth would then support sale of time on those system class observatories… Want to know more?

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**In Situ Power Storage:** Methods of storing power can be manufactured on Mars. They don't need to be ideal, just reliable and requiring minimal mass on convoys. Pumped water, flywheel power storage and thermal mass storage / cogeneration options could be implemented with Martian manufacturing provided critical components like pumps and bearings are sent. Want to know more?

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**Food for Earth & the Belt:** Launching the compounds and consumables for space agriculture from Earth's deep gravity well will always be expensive. The moon lacks key chemistry for growing plants, but Mars, Phobos and the belt have an abundance of what space farmers need. When a significant population exists on Luna or in Earth orbit they will need to eat and Mars is well positioned to ship via space freighter or export mass driver. Want to know more?

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**Gamma Power Cores:** An important technological optional of this mission is the use and in space manufacture of Gamma Core power units. These power cores are Cobalt 60 Radio Thermal Generators manufactured by nuclear synthesis of non-radioactive cobalt ribbon via a Neutron Axial Cylindrical Tritium Ambient Breeder (NACTAB) Fusor. The NACTAB allows safe, non-radioactive launches from Earth which then manufacture safe, high power RTGs. This is a form of nuclear power in space that involves no nuclear weapons proliferation risk. It should be emphasized that running the NACTABs consumes large amounts of power. This will require large solar arrays in space, initially in the Hill sphere. The gamma cores are then assembled and sent to Mars. NACTABs do not produce net power by fusion, instead they are an inexpensive and reliable method of producing Cobalt 60 in space without needing to launch any radioactive material from Earth.

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The Gamma Eye core configuration also provides as potent gamma ray source for scientific, industrial, hygienic and medical applications in space. Most of all, this technology is a viable alternative to fission reactors. Governments of the world are unlikely to provide Mars with as many fission reactors as desired. Without ample power a settlement will not be viable. The thermal power generated by spontaneous decay of Cobalt 60 would power a Stirling engine. Stirling power converters used in solar thermal drive modules or in Martian ground vehicles would be mounted as stationary generators for this application. NACTABs operate just above ambient habitat temperature so using their waste heat for cogenerated central heating is a viable concept. This means energy used to manufacture Cobalt 60 is not necessarily wasted. Related resource links follow:

* Cobalt 60: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt-60
* Fusors: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
* Tritium Breeding: https://www.iter.org/mach/TritiumBreeding

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NACTABs of sufficient length could also support sub-critical thorium reactors on one end. Both ends of a NACTAB are equally good neutron sources so the reactor can be located outside an industrial facility, buried in regolith for neutron flux management. Want to know more?

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**Mars Crawlers:** Massive rover habitats are the only safe way to travel long distances on Mars. The same technology that allows for grav trains could be installed on a cross-country wheeled rover base... Want to know more?

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**Moisture Farming:** Under the surface solar arrays and greenhouse reflectors on Mars is moisture laden soil... Want to know more?

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**Near Earth Object Missions:** It may be possible to apply existing mission infrastructure to study near earth asteroids. If done at a profit perhaps on contract to a national space agency, this may be a worthwhile mission option at some point in the first decade of Deca Direct. Robotic solar spacecraft would carry the science, or perhaps industrial, payloads.Want to know more?

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**Phobos Base Option:** If the Starship landings of Convoy 0 ships is deemed too risky mission planners have the option of caching the ships on Phobos for later use. This offers later convoys a low latency Martian teleoperation capability - Phobos orbits at just 6000 km from Mars - landing on Phobos and operating robotic equipment on Mars could be extremely useful for establishing infrastructure since no return to Mars orbit is required - saving reaction mass. This mission option is also similar to potential belt mining operations that might be carried out.

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Solar shield liner ships like the USS Hope could use Phobos as a dock. With very little gravity, such vessels would be winched in by their rigging lines. The extremely thick layer of fine regolith is easy radiation shielding for buried facilities and could be a valuable mineral resource, easily processed due to the already powdered state. Solar wind power stations would also provide electromagnetic shielding for docked ships and surface operations.

* **Trantor Station:** Want to know more?
* **Terminus Accelerator:** Want to know more?
* **Gimbaled Ion Guidance (GIG) Units:** Want to know more?

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Phobos base could be an automated manufacturing center in the short term. Gamma core manufacturing would be viable here. Significant industrial processes generate waste heat, which requires massive radiator arrays in open space. Phobos itself can serve both as a heat sink and as a thermal reservoir. In terms of thermal management any major industry carried out in Martian orbit is best located on Phobos.

* ESA How to keep warm on a moon: https://www.esa.int/Enabling\_Support/Preparing\_for\_the\_Future/Discovery\_and\_Preparation/How\_to\_keep\_warm\_on\_the\_Moon
* Solar Thermal Power on a moon: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544216303796
* Solar Wind Power Station & Magnetic Shield: http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph240/camarena1/

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**Phobos Mass Driver Export Facility:** The Terminus Accelerator is perhaps the most important single item to be built on Phobos: a long linear accelerator able to place payloads in Earth capture orbits via ballistic capture trajectories. This relies on brute force engineering: big chunky components like electromagnets vacuum tubes, ceramic resistors, capacitors and inductors easily produced in situ. The regolith layer of Phobos is a mixture of powdered minerals easily sifted and refined via solar thermal driven processes. The same facilities producing the magnet lines also manufacture the simple cargo pods and he cargo - both valuable for space construction. As with the rest of Phobos base it is in such a close orbit that low latency signals allow telepresence from planetside.

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**Phobos Physical Data:** Though little is known of this moon's interior it has a thick layer of dusty regolith.

* C-Type Asteroid Compositions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous\_chondrite
* Constraints on the Compositions of Phobos and Deimos from Mineral Absorptions: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20130009708
* Surface Composition of Phobos: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997SoSyR..31..381S/abstract

* Phobos in Depth NASA: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/mars-moons/phobos/in-depth/
* Wikipedia entry for Phobos (moon): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobos\_(moon)

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Aldrin Cycler Fleet Refit

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Once ships in the local hill sphere fleet or in Mars orbit can no longer fill other duties they would be easily refit into Aldrin type automated cargo cyclers. As they were originally Mars return ships, liners, station modules, etc. they could still carry large non-perishable payloads in this way with minimal delta-V expended. Cyclers could deliver significant orbital infrastructure for Mars on a small budget. This is not anticipated before Convoy 5 but in the second decade of settlement this could be a key strategy.

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**Ammonia, Methane & Ice:** Our choice of propellants and thermal engines is intended to synch with the methane production economy the SpaceX Starship will spur on Mars. This depends on development of a methane mode for solar thermal engines. If deposits of nitrogen rich minerals can be mined or extracted from regolith ammonia can be synthesized. Taking exploration further out into the solar system can even be done with water as propellant... More to come!

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* **Seldon Class Cycler:** Want to know more?

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**Toward the Ark:** Building a true space habitat, a self sufficient station in the void, requires the ability to build cyclers. These are the prototypes for space habitats able to operate on automatic alone for years at a time... Want to know more?

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Convoy Composition

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Mars Deca Direct sends ten Starships to Mars each launch window for ten years. That's 40 ships, 4 full convoys and barring accident 36 remain on Mars while 4 return to high Earth orbit. Everything that gets to the surface of Mars in on those ships. The following convoy compositions are our two basic scenarios.

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**2-Plus-8 Convoy Composition:**

Should constraints on development make a full deployment of assets unwarranted an early test of the Starship models is possible. The 2-Plus-8 convoy structure sends out two robotic, uncrewed ships for systems and payload shakedown. This may be warranted if production is not ready for a full Convoy at a given launch window, technologies are not developing in step, finances are temporarily constrained, etc.

* Convoy 0 - Mars Base x 2, Mars Orbital x 0, Mars Return x 0... no return, no crew
* Convoy 1 - Mars Base x 2, Mars Orbital x3, Mars Return x 3 … 1 crewed return, 4 of the Mars Returns are uncrewed and stocked with different but redundant cargoes
* Convoys 2 to 4 - Assume a minimum of ten Starships with fewer spare Mars Return Models but a minimum of 2 new ones per convoy. We plan out to Convoy 4 arbitrarily, though it also approximately covers a decade.

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**9 Plus N Convoy Composition**: If various space agencies and other companies have proven technology and the Starships are ready then the 9-Plus-N approach may work. Each convoy uses 10 ships in a staggered 9 now then 1 later configuration. Each crewed convoy has ample supplies, heavy equipment and redundant return vessels on hand for rapid settlement. Subsequent convoys can be larger (N) and feature multiple crewed vessels for faster settlement due to the larger initial infrastructure from Convoy 0.

* Convoy 0 - Mars Base x 3, Mars Orbital x 3, Mars Return x 3, all uncrewed
* Convoy 1 - Mars Base x 3 plus, Mars Orbital x 3, Mars Return x 4, one crewed
* Convoys 2 to 4 - Assume a minimum of ten Starships with fewer spare Mars Return Models but a minimum of 2 new ones per convoy. We plan out to Convoy 4 arbitrarily, though it also approximately covers a decade.

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**Solar Electric Power Ships:** Launching from Earth to Orbit Starships these SBSP arrays are their own ships. These ships are engineered with many common components and the same starship launch mounts as the Solar Moth Freighters. Since these ships carry no crew or perishable cargo they can use various low energy trajectories and take time getting to Mars. The number of these vessels launch scales with the energy requirements of the settlement.

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**Solar Moth Freighters:** These freighters are automated or uncrewed spacecraft, never landing on Mars and repeatedly ferrying cargo to Mars Orbit, Phobos or Demios. They can carry methalox in zero boil off tanks for Starships, allowing the convoy to take on the extra propellant or other cargo useful in mars orbit. These ships are engineered with many common components and the same starship launch mounts as the Solar Electric Power Ships and Solar Shield Liners.

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**Solar Shield Liners:** These modular ships dock with crewed Starships and provide resources during interplanetary transit. Radiation shielding, extra provisions, more delta-V for faster transit, small greenhouses and on orbit SBSP are included. These are proper interplanetary passenger liners, see Solar Ships above.

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**One Way Tickets:** More than one outbound ship can be crewed with passengers that buy one way tickets. There would be unambiguous legal agreements that these passengers do not have a return option. On initial convoys supplies and schedules would not allow fir tourists unless the seats were bought at great expense but a one way agreement could guarantee employment on Mars.

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**Ship Class Link List:** The following are our mission specific spacecraft:

* **Avasarala Class** - Liner Core: Want to know more?
* **Johnson Class** - Mars Base: Want to know more?
* **Nagata Class** - S-E-P-F: Want to know more?
* **Draper Class** - S-T-P-F: Want to know more?
* **Drummer Class** - Explorer: Want to know more?
* **Kamal Class** - Science Probe: Want to know more?
* **Lucky 7 Class** - Shield Liner: Want to know more?

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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## Other Neighbors In Town

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Settlement efforts other than our core municipal project are welcome in town. The convoy approach, possibly a part of a larger SpaceX mass production strategy (https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-drops-details-for-spacexs-million-person-mars-mega-colony/) and scale of a Martian town make nearby outposts and settlement efforts safer by association. Smaller efforts such as research bases benefit greatly if they build on Mainstreet. Street ring tunnels have avenue safety stations where the grav train docks, emergency life support, emergency accommodations and a security station are found - in Town there is someone to help when things go wrong. The convoys would sell passage and payload, covering the cost of bringing extra Starships and reinvesting profits to accelerate settlement. Town services like comms, utilities, gravity train cabins, etc. also provide income for the settlement.

* Look Inside 3D Printed Habitat, Mashable Video: https://youtu.be/PlVQYsgY2EM
* NASA 3D Printed Habitat Challenge: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial\_challenges/3DPHab/index.html

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## USS Hope Mars Mission Analog

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The voyages aboard a Lucky 7 class liner, the United Space Ship Hope, will become realistic mission analogs. Teams that alternate as ship crew, mission specialists, Mars Control, Phobos Base crew and Earthbase crew will explore a wide variety of mission scenarios including research projects. The detail oriented mission planning of Mars Deca Direct makes for an immersive, educational experience that crews can enjoy and explore. The design of our Basecamp modular campus is compatible with a simulated liner habitat. Plausible aspects of the USS Hope analog plans such as airlock shaft "lift-lock" placement, acoustic insulation, EVA blackout tents, greenscreen cubicles, and correct spacecraft interior dimensions are being aligned with the ship design. Similar in nature to Mars analog missions activity will focus on a hab module matching the ship interior and elements of the exterior. Off-ship personnel would simulate operations from a campus teamspace and the entire experience can be documented with consumer grade vlogging gear. Some Mars mission types that could be explored on the USS Hope include:

* **Aldrin Cycler Operations:** There is a situation on Cycler 9 - light-lagged telepresence can't handle it.
* **Export Satellite Network Down:** Earth export data feeds on Node 5 are down and data must flow.
* **Mars Orbital Operations:** After arrival liners in Mars orbit have many potential roles.
* **Phobos Base Crisis:** Industrial accidents, exploration risks, medical evacuation and more...
* **Voyage to Mars:** The outbound journey of a solar shield liner has many fascinating challenges.

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**What will all of this look like?** Our mission analog will be set in the future when the USS Hope has been in service for decades. The interior of most spacecraft will still resemble 2020s space architecture and design as seen in ESA, NASA and SpaceX efforts. Structure interiors at this stage of settlement, however, will be less like prefabricated spacecraft or stations and more like traditional buildings on Earth. As a passenger liner the USS Hope will have been updated to these latest space styles to give those onboard a thin veneer of comfort.

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Exterior aesthetics, on the other hand, will evolve with physics and technology as their guide. High power industry and lower launch costs will allowing robust spacecraft. Every gram of mass still matters due to the iron grip of the rocket equation.... yet factors like economics, mass production and service lifespan will matter too. We have already seen this in the SpaceX Starship design evolution from ultra expensive composites to assembly line stainless steel. Along these lines of thought our set pieces, backdrops, props, uniforms etc. will take inspiration from some excellent sources:

* An excellent physics based space ship simulation may give us glimpse in to the not so distant future: https://childrenofadeadearth.wordpress.com/
* One of the best near future space science sites: http://www.projectrho.com/public\_html/rocket/index.php
* Our visual style will be a precursor for the best space show of this decade: https://magazine.artstation.com/2016/02/scenes-concept-art-expanse/

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**Together to the moon, Mars and the stars!**

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**Go back to the Introduction at the top.**

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*Mission analogs like the MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station) are an opportunity for research and a profound experience for mission crews.*

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