One of the most hotly debated topics related to sending humans to Mars is the health effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity and how these might be mitigated. Prolonged exposure to microgravity (a.k.a. “zero gravity”) has several serious effects on…

Crew size The Mars Semi-Direct and NASA DRA architectures specify a crew of six, although the Mars Direct and Mars-Oz architectures require only four. Although it may be possible that a smaller crew – even as small as 2 people,…

The Mars Surface Habitat, or, more simply, “the hab”, is a custom-built piece of hardware designed to accommodate, ideally, a crew of 6 astronauts on the surface of Mars. It must therefore include cabins, common areas (kitchen/dining), laboratories and other…

SpaceX Falcon 9 The Falcon 9 is a successful flight-tested rocket noted for being the rocket that enabled SpaceX to become the first commercial company to visit the ISS (International Space Station). A Falcon 9 can carry 13150kg to LEO (Low…

Here is an overview of the Blue Dragon mission architecture. This section refers to “Sagan”, the first base on Mars created through the Tiw Program. Note that Mars One may already have a base established by 2023 or thereabouts. It also…

Mission Profile There are fundamentally two options for an H2M (Humans to Mars) mission: Conjunction class or “short stay” mission. Opposition class or “long stay” mission. The option utilised by Blue Dragon is the long stay, using the same rationale…