• Question: Have you designed a rocketship to go to Mars. Or, is that possible.

    Asked by johnhawkinscactuscantgrow to Aisling, Colin, Laurence, Ned, Niamh on 7 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Ned Dwyer

      Ned Dwyer answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      No – personall I have not been involved in that. However we have already sent spacecraft to orbit around Mars and take lots of photographs of it. We have also landed small robots on Mars. They have collected samples of the surface and analysed them and transmitted the results back to us here on Earth. So that is hoiw we can find out so much about other planets. Check out: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html

    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      I haven’t designed one – I only work with satellites. To go to Mars you need a very powerful rocket. To escape Earth’s gravity you need to be travelling at 11.1km/second which can only be done by a few rockets e.g. Ariane 5, Delta IV Heavy.

      You are also limited by the size of the satellite to go to Mars because the heavier the satellite the bigger the rocket and at a certain point if it is too heavy then you can’t launch it.

      To send a man to the moon they used the Saturn V which was a mega rocket. They are now trying to produce something similar to repeat the same thing and also to send people to asteroids and to Mars. But then you could ask if you could send a satellite to mars, why can’t you send a person? Well, it’s the weight thing again – people are heavy but also people need food, drink, life support and other facilities which all lead to a heavy spaceship. This heavy spaceship can’t be launched by the big rockets existing so they need to build a bigger one

      OK so I refer to a satellite going to Mars. If you have a rocket big enough to send a satellite to mars then that same rocket would follow the same “trajectory” as the satellite for a period of time. However, in the trip to Mars, normally they do correction manouevres where they correct the direction being flown by the satellite to ensure it arrives at the correct place in the orbit of Mars. For the rocket they wouldn’t do this, so you would have the rocket (or top part of it anyway) going towards Mars but missing Mars completely.

    • Photo: Aisling Shannon

      Aisling Shannon answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      No but I have worked on a project called ExoMars which is launching next week. Keep an eye on http://exploration.esa.int/mars/ for all the latest news in the run up to the launch and pictures of the launch when it happens

    • Photo: Colin Shirran

      Colin Shirran answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      It sure is possible! I haven’t designed a rocket ship to do this but it has been developed a few times. I would see Laurence’s answer.

      If you are talking about a rocket ship to carry humans, then no we haven’t specifically made this yet but all the technology is there to do so. It just depends on how quick we think we need to get them there. The longer humans are drifting in space the more dangerous it is for their bodies.

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