Vessel Hermes Spacecraft from The Martian

[wllmpeek]

So, when is one of our brilliant developers going to make a kick ass replica of the Hermes Spacecraft from the movie The Martian? Is someone currently working on it? If so, who?

 

[boogabooga]

Looks to me like you can build something close now with Interplanetary Modular Spacecraft. (IMS)

What is the propulsion system?

 

[ccapeahrt1017]

im pretty sure there still using chemical propulsion

 

[Mandella]

First off, probably should move this to Addon Requests.

That said, I have to agree that the first thing I thought of when I saw the Hermes was that I couldn't wait to fly this mission in Orbiter!

We've been somewhat blessed in the last few years with Sci-Fi movies featuring reasonably realistic ships. Gattispilot is doing a great job of modeling the vessels from Interstellar, and I'm really looking forward to whoever decides to tackle The Martian.

It won't be as easy a job as it first looks either. For the full mission the MAVs will also need to be modeled, and as far as I know we were never shown what the descent stage looked like before it was decoupled from the Hermes (presumably the hab module was the descent stage reconfigured on the ground -- I've only seen the movie once so forgive me if I missed something here like a separate clearly labeled descent stage sitting off to one side).

 

[SolarLiner]

im pretty sure there still using chemical propulsion

Because of the constant acceleration trajectory, I thought the engine was an Ion one.

It won't be as easy a job as it first looks either. For the full mission the MAVs will also need to be modeled, and as far as I know we were never shown what the descent stage looked like before it was decoupled from the Hermes (presumably the hab module was the descent stage reconfigured on the ground -- I've only seen the movie once so forgive me if I missed something here like a separate clearly labeled descent stage sitting off to one side).

Andy Weir is such a geek I'm sure if someone emailed him saying they wanted to make the Hermes for Orbiter, he'd provide us with all the little details of the whole mission :lol:

 

[perseus]

Interesting site with the technical aspect of the hypothetical mission.

Inside The Spaceflight Of 'The Martian

 

[francisdrake]

The Atomic Rockets website has a chapter on Hermes concepts, with reverse-engineered data from the book and the movie.

 

[Kyle]

The engine is mentioned to be an ion engine in the book.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

It was argon fueled, iirc, so it could be a gridded ion engine, a Hall effect thruster, or even a VASIMR unit. Each of them would need the power of a small nuclear reactor to achieve the required thrust to accelerate the mass of the Hermes in a reasonable manner.

 

[Andy44]

I just finished the book. They use the term "ion engine" several times, and in one piece of dialogue the word "vasimr" is used. The ship has a "reactor room" which is a pressurized space. Few other details are mentioned, other than that the main drive is low thrust and high Isp.

I agree that inviting the author to join OF might not be a bad idea. He sounds like the kind of guy who might be willing to do it, and he's the one with all the tech research on the story.

 

[GodAtum]

I would love for this to happen. The cockpit also looks very cool

 

[barrygolden]

All of the stuff from the movie needs to be made

 

[N_Molson]

I'd say gather as much reference material as you can find and post it here. Having a bunch of material to get inspiration from, or even better, blueprints, makes the modeling process much more appealing.

 

[barrygolden]

I will see what I can find I loved the movie and the ERV , truck, the hab but really liked the spacesuits

 

[francisdrake]

When I read the book I was totally thrilled on the realism that Andy Weir packed into the story, and still wrote an absolute page-turner book!
With the formulas on the Atomic Rockets page, I tried to draft a concept of the 'Hermes' as a nuclear-powered, ion-driven vessel.

I collected the tidbits of information from the book on maneuvers and flight duration, summarized them in a spreadsheet.
I have to say this was long before the movie. My concept was by far less cinematic.
I ended up with a 60 ton dry mass vessel, consisting of an 85 m long truss, an inflatable trans-hab on one end, and a reactor on the other,
spinning head-over-heels for artificial gravity.
The reactor had a thermal power of 10 MW, with an electrical yield of 8 MW.
Using two arrays of ion engines allowed flight times of 124 days single route, as described in the book.

Calculation data and a short description is included in the attached file 'Hermes.zip.'
The design may be outdated nowadays, but maybe the figures can help to make a proper Orbiter vessel.

 

[Spaceman 3D]

Not Orbiter but here is my take on the Hermes.

 

[misha.physics]

Not Orbiter but here is my take on the Hermes.

Then what is it? Space Engine?

 

[Spaceman 3D]

Then what is it? Space Engine?

Render I made in UE5 modeled in blender

 

[misha.physics]

Didn't you think to export it into Orbiter? Or is this a non-free model?

 

[Spaceman 3D]

Do you have a Supercomputer? Modeled everything myself. It's made for Renders whith high poly count. Would have to remodel it.