Logistics and space

[HiPotOk1978]

I was sitting at me computer trying to come up with a scn file for use with my ReFuel base on Ganymede and I discovered a problem. How does one get 200+ tons of anything from Earth to Jupiter.

The idea evolved like this

No sense in manning a ship. People have weight and needs like O2 and food, and something to do. The list goes on and on so simply put a unmanned flight is always preferred.

Some goods need more love than others. You can get some things colder than others, or hotter than others, so temperature needs to be constant so the food, or electronics or whatever do not fry before they get there.

Initial idea was to use traditional rockets to ferry individual pods into LEO or Lunar surface. From there assemble into a larger 'space only' traveling structure that would have enough power and fuel to move to orbit of another body, say Ganymede in my example. Once the device was assembled, it could then fly out.

Launch windows occur at specific times to use the least amount of fuel so imo, large bulks of cargo would need to be moved at once, so how does one do this...

Suggestions welcome for anyone that may know of some gems out there, add-ons for SSBB for example or add-on that addresses this question that would give these MASSIVE huge unmanned cargo barges some way to get to the outer planets

 

[ar81]

200 tons would require at least 1800 tons of fuel.
You need a veery big launcher.
Or you should send pieces to orbit and assemble there.
Then you need to attach a rocket with some more fuel for the planetary transfer.
The sonner the arrival, the more fuel it will require.

 

[Jarvitä]

You could just assemble everything (payload+propulsion) in LEO using 10 or so flights of a heavy cargo rocket (think Ariane 6, Energia).

 

[astrosammy]

Or try the Nova, included in the Velcro Rockets addon.

 

[HiPotOk1978]

now that I am back, had a 2 week hospital stay I wanna get back in the swing of things. I do wanna build the super structure prob out of SSBB, anyone have suggestions on how to attach engines to such a mass?

 

[Scarecrow]

I haven't put much thought into the practicality of this, but one extremely speculative, but possibly fun idea is this:

1. Select some opportune asteroid and attach some big thrusters to it.

2. Shift it's trajectory such that it will eventually slingshot from earth to Jupiter (perhaps slinging past other planets on the way to gain speed).

3. Put the cargo on a trajectory (perhaps even a suborbital one) such that it will be struck and carried along by the asteroid!:blink:

4. The cargo module could then detach itself from the asteroid, make final course corrections, and then aerobrake at the destination, while the asteroid lines up a slingshot back to earth for another go.

Given a good choice of asteroid (to get the initial trajectory lined up), and really shock resistant cargo modules, it could work! Maybe...:dry:

 

[HiPotOk1978]

I haven't put much thought into the practicality of this, but one extremely speculative, but possibly fun idea is this:

1. Select some opportune asteroid and attach some big thrusters to it.

2. Shift it's trajectory such that it will eventually slingshot from earth to Jupiter (perhaps slinging past other planets on the way to gain speed).

3. Put the cargo on a trajectory (perhaps even a suborbital one) such that it will be struck and carried along by the asteroid!:blink:

4. The cargo module could then detach itself from the asteroid, make final course corrections, and then aerobrake at the destination, while the asteroid lines up a slingshot back to earth for another go.

Given a good choice of asteroid (to get the initial trajectory lined up), and really shock resistant cargo modules, it could work! Maybe...:dry:

There is an asteroid that passes pretty close to Earth every ~4 years and gets pretty close to Earth before . I have landed a DGIV on it but fuel requirements to reach it with any speed due to its EXTREME low gravity made it hard due to the fact that I basically approached it like a deep space station. I am not sure if the Sim will actually allow you to change the orbit or not. Not sure how I can attach an engine to it tbh but from one of the addon packs I do have it in my copy of orbiter. It was fun putting my DGIV into a VERY close orbit like 400m from the surface

 

[GregBurch]

As much fun as it is to imagine moving lots of "stuff" from one part of the solar system to the other (and I'm certainly engaged in making addons that could suggest that this might happen), in reality, I think very little matter will ever get moved from one part of the solar system to the other, in relative terms. It makes much, much more sense to send a very few general purpose tools, and the most valuable commodity, information, and then put the two together with local materials to make what you need where you need it.

To me, one of the most interesting questions is what the minimum amount of matter actually is to be able to recreate whatever you need with local materials. If we don't trip and fall in the meantime, I think that amount of matter will end up being extremely small in a hundred years or so -- a few grams.

 

[penlu]

I haven't put much thought into the practicality of this, but one extremely speculative, but possibly fun idea is this:

1. Select some opportune asteroid and attach some big thrusters to it.

2. Shift it's trajectory such that it will eventually slingshot from earth to Jupiter (perhaps slinging past other planets on the way to gain speed).

3. Put the cargo on a trajectory (perhaps even a suborbital one) such that it will be struck and carried along by the asteroid!:blink:

4. The cargo module could then detach itself from the asteroid, make final course corrections, and then aerobrake at the destination, while the asteroid lines up a slingshot back to earth for another go.

Given a good choice of asteroid (to get the initial trajectory lined up), and really shock resistant cargo modules, it could work! Maybe...:dry:

I laughed my head off at this approach. Maybe try killing relative velocity with the asteroid at the moment before impact, if the gravity of the asteroid is weak enough then the cargo will land no problem. But if you're killing relative velocity with the asteroid, aren't you just sticking yourself onto its trajectory? :rofl:Oh well, I guess we'll have to have your shock resistant cargo modules anyways. Or maybe shoot the cargo through a bunch of ceramic plates stacked up on the asteroid. Of course, put some space between them.

Anyhow, I think it would be better to stick a couple of fusion engines on the back of a Shuttle-A like contraption and fire it off. 30 day trip!