Amount of supplies for interplanetary trip

[TMac3000]

Not sure which forum to post this in, but I'm just curious...about how much would the required mass of food, water, oxygen, supplies and other consumables be for a 4-month interplanetary voyage (one way)?

I'm interested because the extra mass would effect burn time and thus fuel usage...

 

[MattBaker]

Well, important would be how many persons, but per person:

Food: 150 kg, depending on the kind of food
Water: 300 kg
Oxygen: depending on your cabin air, is it 100% oxygen or oxygen/nitrogen, a 75 kg man consumes 15 litre of Oxygen per hour, 120 days would be 2880 hours, so one man consumes 43.200 litres of Oxygen in that time. Now that's the litre amount, one mole (6,022 x 10²³) of a gas is 22,4 litres, so 43.200 litres are 1930 mole. Oxygen is 32 g/mole, so 1930 mole are roughly 62 kilograms. So one person consumes 62 kilograms of oxygen in 120 days, but this is really just what he needs, so from day 100+ on you have some 5% oxygen-environment.
Supplies, well, aside from your scientific equipment you need clothes, medical items, personal items, but I give someone else a shot there, I don't know.

 

[jangofett287]

Have more info!: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/lifesupport.php

 

[TMac3000]

Okay, I'm getting roughly 3.2 metric tons of consumables per day for a crew of 7. For a 400-day round trip, that is 1,280 metric tons:blink: Yowch, that can't be right...

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

Wait, I haven't looked at that link yet...

---------- Post added at 12:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 AM ----------

Okay, now I get, for a 400-day round trip with a crew of 7:
2.2 metric tons of O2
14 metric tons of water (rationing 5 liters per person per day)
420 metric tons of food
That comes out to 436 metric tons. Still crazy to try and boost all that, but much better than 1280

---------- Post added at 12:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM ----------

And I'd like a 70/30 atmo

 

[astrosammy]

This is about 2.3 kg of food per man per day

I get 6.4 metric tons of food using this. Sounds much better than 420 tons

(Thanks for the link up there, BTW)

 

[TMac3000]

I just figured that out too
I mistook the 150 kg figure as per man per day. Not unless you have seven Chris Christies for a crew:lol:
That lowers it to a little over 20 m tons. Much better

 

[Donamy]

+10% fudge factor.

 

[TMac3000]

Indeed. And that's just consumables. Rougly double that to account for clothing, scientific equipment, tools and personal effects, and you get 40 tons. Now then, figuring for a generous ISP of 400 s and a delta-v of about 9.5 km/s, what sort of fuel penalty are we talking about?

 

[Keatah]

What about personal mementos and a camera?