Planning a Manned Mission to Artemis

Planning a Manned Mission to the New Planet

From the work of the students from the first year (1999/2000)

The mission will take 2.8 months to reach Artemis with 12 scientists, 7 months layover, and then 5.3 months to return.

From the work of the students from the second year (2000/2001)

-pending-

The teams were asked to make recommendations toward a manned mission to the new planet. Nine nations will finance the construction of a large manned space ship to send an exploration team to the new planet. Due to the large size of the spacecraft and the demands upon fuel conservation, the ship will be built in orbit around the Earth.

The space ship, named the USS Pioneer, will be manned by a crew of twelve specialists. After much discussion and debate, the teams settled on the following experts:

Archaeologist

Astronomer

Biologist

Chemist

Computer Scientist

Ecologist

Engineer

Geologist

Meteorologists

Oceanographer

Physician

Physicist

Four of these will be specially trained pilots as well.

Once the space ship reaches orbit around the new planet, six of the crew will enter the planetary lander, named the USS Lewis, and launch from the USS Pioneer. USS Lewis will enter into a lower orbit and remain there for several hours making measurements of the upper atmosphere and magnetosphere of the planet. While in lower orbit, the USS Lewis will launch a pre-lander pod, known as the PLP 1208D, which will carry dozens of remote control vehicles (also known as rovers) and static experimental stations. As the PLP 1208D descends toward the planet, it will in turn launch each of the rovers across the surface of the planet. Soon thereafter the PLP 1208D will land with the remaining static experimental stations.

Below are schematics for the ship and also for the manned module.

Eventually the USS Lewis will leave its low orbit and descend to a predetermined landing site. Once down, the crew will

Operate the rovers by remote control to explore the surface of the planet
Make radio and microwave contact with the static experimental stations scattered across the planet as well as the main stations aboard the PLP 1208D.
Four of the crew will be authorized to make short "planet-walks" from the USS Lewis. To conduct some experiments and explorations first hand.

The crew remaining in orbit onboard the USS Pioneer will stay and conduct experiments from space.

The entire planet-side mission is schedule to last seven months – with the USS Lewis spending six of those months on the surface before returning to the USS Pioneer at which time all will return to the Earth.

The time to fly from the orbit of the Earth to the orbit of the new planet will depend upon the distance and the speed. The USS Pioneer will sling shot out of the Earth’s orbit at 67,000 miles per hour and will burn its Releasable Booster Rockets to reach an average cruising speed of 98,700 miles per hour or 2.37 x 10⁶ miles per day. Soon after reaching that speed, both of the Releasable Booster Rocket Wings will detach and eventually spiral into the Sun and the USS Pioneer will cruise on to the new planet. The team determined that the flight to the new planet will take 78.5 days = 11.2 weeks » 2.8 months.

After the mission is complete and the USS Lewis has returned to its docking bay, the USS Pioneer will ignite its strap-on solid booster rockets located around its main sustainer engines and escape orbit. The cruise back to the Earth will be at roughly 52,000 miles per hour (1.25 x 10⁶ miles per day) - slower than the trip out. The main sustainer engines will be used to make final corrections in entering Earth orbit. The team determined that the flight back will take 149 days = 21.3 weeks » 5.3 months.