Interplanetary Highway - Die Rocketbahn

The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed in six years. Before its completion, traveling across the country took up to six months by wagon or a long sea voyage; the railroad cut that journey down to under a week. Today, government agencies and private companies from the USA are aiming to establish settlements on Mars by attempting to reach their ambitious goals without first building proper intermediate infrastructure. Developed nations—such as the USA, the UK, and Western European countries—achieved rapid growth by prioritizing infrastructure investment far ahead of other nations, enabling efficient resource utilization and high-throughput, bulk transport nationwide.

Trying to land on Mars and return is not simple like the Apollo Moon missions; we need an interplanetary highway to achieve that. Most importantly, spending billions on one-of-a-kind missions gives humanity no meaningful long-term advancement. The proof is obvious from the Apollo era: over more than half a century later, our progress toward a permanent Moon base is nonexistent. That is the direct result of strategies that fail to establish infrastructure first.

My space highway is designed to provide relief nodes for deep-space odysseys—much like fueling stations on a terrestrial highway. Even on the Silk Road long ago, caravanserais catered to merchant caravans. This infrastructure allowed vast amounts of goods to be transported rapidly across diverse terrains and regions with minimal loss and hassle.

I can generalize this highway design independently of the target planet. The first node is a robotic docking station in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It will be used to assemble rockets for deep-space missions and provide descent modules for returning craft so they do not have to enter Earth's atmosphere on a steep ballistic trajectory—enabling a much gentler touchdown on Earth.

Similar to the LEO station, an orbiting station will also be deployed at the target planet. Its purpose will be to supply surface-descent modules and return-to-orbit ascent modules for arriving payloads or human crews. It will also provide additional booster modules for the mission rocket to speed up the return flight home.

The interplanetary highway will also feature intermediary nodes to accelerate the journey by providing booster modules along the way. The placement of these nodes will depend on the target planet's distance. I propose a node positioned close to Earth that departing rockets can easily access. The next stop for the mission rocket would then be the orbital station at the target planet. This is because as a rocket accelerates in deep space, attempting to dock with a station requires shedding substantial velocity—negating the acceleration gained from the boosters. At the beginning of the voyage, however, that velocity-matching penalty is minimal.

One critical point must be clarified: these intermediary nodes will orbit the Sun. They will not remain close to Earth or the target planet at all times. Therefore, several such stations must be deployed along the designated orbit to enable year-round launch opportunities.