Feasible Approach to Human Planetary Missions

I had previously stated a five staged rocket for planetary human missions. However, a feasible mission cannot be achieved by a single rocket. At least five separate launches should be made for the success.

The feasibility of the mission is improved mainly by increasing the average speed of the journey from Earth to the destination planet. Before the launch carrying the humans, preliminary rockets will be launched. The payloads of these rockets will be placed into orbit of the targeted planet.

One launch will deploy a Planetary Transfer Module (PTM). PTM would be like Apollo Lunar module. Composed of two stages. Descent stage lands the payload on the surface. Ascent stage lifts the payload to the orbiting Living Module (LvM). Depending on the gravity and the atmosphere of the planet, PTM would vary.

Another launch would deploy a Living Module (LvM) fully loaded without humans inside. LvM would be the living space for the humans during the voyage. It also contains the necessary supplies on board.

Another launch would deploy a Planet to Earth Injection Module (PEIM). This multi-stage module would put the LvM into trans Earth injection. It would dock to the fully supplied unoccupied LvM.

Once the rocket stage (LvM) carrying the humans reach the targeted planet, it will dock with the orbiting PTM. The humans would then transfer to PTM. Afterwards, the abandoned LvM serve as an orbiting observatory and communications relay until it falls on the planet.

When the humans complete their surface exploration, they would ascent and dock to the orbiting fully supplied LvM using the PTM. The living module (LvM) would then be injected into the trans Earth trajectory using the attached PEIM boosters.

This approach also requires additional launches depending on the inter planetary distance, to supply additional thrust boost to the LvM. I call them Space Rendezvous and will clarify it on my next article.

As a conclusion, the objective of my approach is to separately deploy necessary stages to be utilized later on the mission to the targeted planet in advance. This negates the need for a giant rocket with almost ten stages.