Last August, my
undergraduate alma mater Florida Institute of Technology announced
the creation of the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute with Apollo 11
astronaut Buzz Aldrin and his son, Andy Aldrin. On Monday and Tuesday
this week, I was excited to attend the inaugural Buzz Aldrin Space
Institute Workshop with approximately 40 Florida Tech professors and
invited guests. The topic of the workshop was the Aldrin Earth-Mars
Cycler concept and, more generally, a human mission to Mars.
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| Buzz Aldrin opening up the workshop. - January 18, 2016 |
Buzz opened up the
workshop on Monday morning discussing his cycler and his thoughts on
spaceflight in general. I met Buzz three or four times previously and
had heard him discuss the cycler, but this was the longest and most
comprehensive talk I'd seen him give. His plan, Cycling Pathways to
Occupy Mars, has evolved over the years and continues to evolve. I've
read a few of the studies done to detail and analyze the plan, but I
have more research to do in order to understand it all.
In brief, the cycler
is a continuous motion spaceflight plan to periodically send cargo
and crew to and from Earth and Mars, and also potentially tying in
cis-lunar space, the Moon, and Mars' moon Phobos. The timeline,
number of vehicles, number of astronauts, and even the types of
vehicles used all seem to be in flux depending on studies being done.
Buzz seems to be moving away from NASA's Space Launch System SLS
(which he sees as a drain of money and wants to see defunded along
with the International Space Station) and more toward commercial
space industry utilization. Specifically mentioned were Bigelow
Aerospace inflatable habitats. International co-operation also seemed
to be a key component. The eventual plan is to establish settlements
on Phobos and Mars.
The technical
details don't appear to be fleshed out well enough to be a true
mission architecture at this point. The concept is early-stage and
needs refinement. Therefore, the current timelines stated are very
optimistic. It's all a good start. In order for this concept to
become a proposed mission, more work needs to be done. I look forward
to seeing the concept progress.
The international
relations need a lot of work. The presentations had countries closely
partnering who hate each other (China and Japan, North and South
Korea), close partners not working together (Japan and USA, Japan and
Europe, China and Russia), and a Mars-interested country forgotten
entirely (India). There was also a curious statement that the United
States can't go to Mars without China. We've send robotic missions to
Mars without China. We'll very likely need international partnerships
for a human mission but not necessarily China. China would be a great
space partner but I'm not seeing that happen anytime soon.
Most of the rest of
the workshop were talks related to the theme in four categories:
in-space systems; surface systems and operations; human factors,
health, and safety; and international cooperation and public support.
Talks included topics such as trajectories, regolith flow due to
rocket plumes (similar to a project I did while in grad school),
propulsion, autonomous maneuvering, magnetic shielding, habitat
analogs and simulators, biomining, Martian terrain, teamwork, mental
health (in Buzz's opinion, the #1 human factors concern), costs, and
public outeach. Some discussions took unexpected turns. Regarding the
mental health talk, I've never heard prisoners of war discussed at a
space talk before!
The last few hours
of the workshop were break-out session discussions in small groups. I
took notes and ended up later presenting for the surface systems and
operations group. We covered a lot ground but there's so much more to
discuss! It really got me thinking.
The workshop also
included dinner on Monday evening. My husband took care of the baby
all day Monday and Tuesday, so I took Josephine to dinner with me.
She met her first two astronauts: Buzz Aldrin and Sam Durrance.
Buzz's 86th birthday is today so we celebrated on Monday
(the day after my birthday). It was a great opportunity to get to
know everyone and exchange ideas. I'm pleased to have been involved
and look forward to what BASI creates in the future.
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| Happy birthday, Buzz! cheer Josephine and I from the back - January 18, 2016 |
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| Josephine meets her first Moonwalker - January 18, 2016 |
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