Coming right up!
EDIT: Okay, here's what a few runs of the TOT gives me. I've done some analysis on the next three launch windows. They are as tabulated below.
Launch Window
|
Depart C3 [km^s/s^2]
|
Arrival Speed [km/s]
12/10/2013 |9.1051|3.28
3/7/2016|8.1229| 5.0556
5/13/2018| 7.7498|2.9746
Now, the actual departure dV will be determined by the orbit the spacecraft is in before the TMI burn. A
very brief analysis seems to show that polar and/or retrograde (inclination around 110 degrees) orbits provide the easiest way to depart Earth. What I'll do, once we've settled on the launch date, is determine what a decent orbit to inject into is for each window.
At arrival, I'm thinking aerocapture maneuvers for everything but the comm sats (which may not be built for that sort of thing). If you can tell me how much dV those sats are capable of, I can find a trajectory that minimizes the arrival velocity to below that amount.
That all said, my recommendation for what should be launched to Mars and when is as follows:
OFMM-7/8 - 2013 window (2x launch vehicles)
OFMM-14/15/16/17 - 2016 window (4x launch vehicles)
OFMM-20/21/23 - 2018 launch window (3x launch vehicles)
Porkchop Plots
Below I've posted porkchop plots that show the required C3 energy (the hyperbolic excess speed squared) for the three Earth-Mars launch windows. These are merely a graphical representation of what was found in the table above and are shown mostly for the visually-inclined.
2013 Window
2016 Window
2018 Window