Journal of the British Interplanetary Society VOLUME 71 NO.5 MAY 2018 Mars in the Age of New Space Launchers AN EARTH-MOON-MARS Passenger Transport Pyramid Stephen Ashworth THE MARTIANS: Space Age Visions of Journeys to the Red Planet Stephen Baxter MARS COLONISATION The Health Hazards and Exposure Control John R. Cain IMPLICATIONS FOR RESOURCE UTILIZATION ON MARS: Recent Discoveries and Hypotheses Fabrizio Bernardini, Nathaniel Putzig, Eric Petersen, Angel Abbud-Madrid & Valentina Giacinti THE LAWS OF MARS COLONISATION – a Legal Analysis Raphaël Costa www.bis-space.com ISSN 0007-084X PUBLICATION DATE: 30 NOVEMBER 2018 Submitting papers International Advisory Board to JBIS JBIS welcomes the submission of technical Rachel Armstrong, Newcastle University, UK papers for publication dealing with technical Peter Bainum, Howard University, USA reviews, research, technology and engineering in astronautics and related fields. 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Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd, Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PY, England. © 2018 British Interplanetary Society. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from the Publishers. CONTENTS VOLUME 71 NO.5 MAY 2018 158 Introduction 159 THE MARTIANS: Space Age Visions of Journeys to the Red Planet Stephen Baxter 165 AN EARTH-MOON-MARS Passenger Transport Pyramid Stephen Ashworth 178 MARS COLONISATION The Health Hazards and Exposure Control John R. Cain 186 IMPLICATIONS FOR RESOURCE UTILIZATION ON MARS: Recent Discoveries and Hypotheses Fabrizio Bernardini, Nathaniel Putzig, Eric Petersen, Angel Abbud-Madrid & Valentina Giacinti 190 THE LAWS OF MARS COLONISATION – a Legal Analysis Raphaël Costa From the Editor It has come to our attention that due to a printing error, some copies of the March issue of JBIS were circulated with the first two and last two pages missing. If your copy was so affected, please call or email theJBIS office (see left) and we will replace it free of charge. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Roger Longstaff, Editor OUR MISSION STATEMENT The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in all aspects of astronautics. JBIS Vol 71 No.5 May 2018 157 INTRODUCTION Introduction Mars in the Age of New Space Launchers The Mars Symposium at the BIS in London, 28 February and 1 March. From left to right: Mark Hempsell, Alan Bond, Bob Parkinson, Richard Osborne, David Todd, Stephen Ashworth. ver since there was an understanding of the real- arises is: how might this new capability affect approaches to ities of the Solar System and its planets, visiting getting humans to Mars? It was to explore this question that Mars has been a key aspiration of interplanetary the British Interplanetary Society held a two-day Symposium flight. From the late nineteenth century onwards, entitled “Mars in the Age of New Space Launchers” on 28 Feb- E science fiction has speculated about flights between ruary and 1 March 2018. Earth and Mars. As time passed the true nature of Venus was discovered, ruling it out as a target, and the Moon (at least The event attracted sixteen very diverse talks, and we have in popular imagination) became perceived as just a boring papers based on five of these talks in this special issue of JBIS. lump of rock. Thus Mars with its more Earth-like qualities They reflect the multifarious issues that need to be considered became the pre-eminent target for the next big human mis- and resolved before the adventure of human flight to Mars sion. A more objective and rational assessment may show can be attempted, including not just technical issues but ar- other important destinations that will also need to be reached chitectural strategies and legal aspects. The first day of the for complete understanding and exploitation of the Solar Sys- symposium showed that, while the capability of these new tem, but Mars remains pivotal as both a technological and a launchers will not in and of itself transform the feasibility of scientific goal of interplanetary exploration. reaching Mars, it is an essential foundation. The second day showed that our understanding of what we can do when we Hopefully, after many false starts, we are now entering a get there continues to grow. new age in which this goal is made achievable through the appearance of launch systems that offer higher capacity, high- er reliability and lower cost. The Space Launch System, the The Organising Committee reusable vehicles under development by SpaceX and Blue Or- Stephen Ashworth igin, and Reaction Engines’ Skylon spaceplane are all offering Mark Hempsell potentially transformational capability. So the question that Richard Osborne 158 Vol 71 No.5 May 2018 JBIS JBIS VOLUME 71 2018 PAGES 159-163 THE MARTIANS: Space Age Visions of Journeys to the Red Planet STEPHEN BAXTER c/o Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists, 9 Union Square #123, Southbury, CT 06488, USA email [email protected] This paper is a study of post-World War II technological