“If I Were to Land on Mars...”, Air & Space Magazine, 1/11. Astronaut Don Pettitt’s account of the Soyuz ballistic landing he and Expedition 6 endured on 3 May 2003. He does note one positive aspect: the landings could be regarded as rehearsals for Mars landings!
So we had made a serendipitous discovery: Because of how the mission unfolded and culminated in a lost recovery, it had an uncanny resemblance to a trip to, and a landing on, Mars. We showed that barriers associated with such a trip, in the form of human physical performance deficits, can be overcome with the knowledge gained from the similar effects experienced on long-duration space station missions.
The parallels are striking. First we lived in a weightless environment for five and a half months. Depending on the choice of propulsion, six months is a good estimate for a one-way trip to Mars. So our level of deconditioning was about the same as that of a crew arriving at the Red Planet. We piloted our own spacecraft through a high-G entry maneuver, similar to what a crew may have to do at Mars. Our landing sequence involved a combination of parachutes and landing rockets, culminating in a hard landing on dry ground in one of the more remote places on Earth. For reaching the Martian surface, such a combination is an attractive option. And the landing site will be remote.
On our own, we performed a number of basic operational tasks not unlike those a crew might execute after landing on Mars, such as spacecraft safing, which involves reading procedures, flipping switches, and pushing buttons on the control panel to power down unneeded equipment to extend battery life for the radios. Since the Soyuz capsule ended up on its side, we did this strapped into a seat fixed to a slanted ceiling. We then opened the hatch by ourselves, unstrapped, and crawled out. In my spacesuit, I weighed 200 Earth pounds. On Mars, at 0.38 of Earth’s gravity, it would require over 500 Earth pounds to equal the same loading on my body. So while future Mars astronauts will wear heavier suits with life support systems, they will be lighter there than I was in Earth’s gravity. We deployed the survival gear that was scattered in numerous small bundles throughout the spacecraft. It takes a pair of strong hands to pull these bundles from their stowage in odd nooks and crannies – woolen clothes, food, water, a medical kit, a portable radio, and a flare-shooting pistol.
We performed all these operations with no outside help. We might as well have been on Mars.
“Opening The Window For Shenzhou 7”, SpaceDaily, 19/9. Shenzhou-7 is due to liftoff on 25 September. Zhai Zhigang will perform the EVA in an experimental Chinese-built suit, called “Feitian” after a mythological flying god; it weighs 120 kilograms, and each model will cost about 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) to produce. Liu Boming will wear a Russian Orlan suit to come to his rescue if necessary. Jing Haipeng will remain inside the pressurized Descent Module
“Russia And France Sign Contract To Launch 10 Rockets From Kourou”, RIAN/SpaceDaily, 22/9. The rockets will be Soyuz-ST carrier rockets used to launch geostationary satellites.
(Oh, and thanks to “FlyingSinger” for the nice post!)
