Resupply Depot

[All Seeing Eye]

Just throwing an idea out there, when trying to get people to Mars and back would it be a good idea to build a resupply depot smack inbetween Earth and Mars? Any ship passing by could resupply or stop off to make repairs if the need arises and it could even have huge reserves of fuel for any emergency and a full blown medical lab incase of injurys.

The depot could either be some sort of space station or an asteroid from the asteroid belt could be moved inbetween the planets and a base built on the actual asteroid itself.

The depot could also become extremely pivotal when it comes to trying to terraform Mars too because no doubt there would be lots of trips taking place. There could also be some sort of special launching device to relaunch shuttles using a magnetic accelerator like them train lines made from superconductive material.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Fire said:
Just throwing an idea out there, when trying to get people to Mars and back would it be a good idea to build a resupply depot smack inbetween Earth and Mars? Any ship passing by could resupply or stop off to make repairs if the need arises and it could even have huge reserves of fuel for any emergency and a full blown medical lab incase of injurys.

Any spacecraft on Earth-Mars/Mars-Earth trajectories couldn't just "stop off" at your supply shack. They would need to expend a substantial amount of fuel to match orbits for a rendezvous which may well be impossible if the vehicles in question were designed for minimum-energy Hohmann transfers.

TGT

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Normally a space vehicle would go to Mars when the orbits of the planets are at their closest, the vehicle would 'intercept' Mars but I dont see why this must be the case when there's a stop off point, the vehicle could set off much much earlier than usual and go to the depot where they could stock up on food from the depots hydroponics bay the vehicle could then set off in time to rendevous with Mars.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

We could build the depot *on* Mars.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I was thinking more along the lines of having it halfway so if anything happened on the long journey to and from Mars there was somewhere safe to stop off at.

 

[Dayton3]

Fire said:
I was thinking more along the lines of having it halfway so if anything happened on the long journey to and from Mars there was somewhere safe to stop off at.

It doesn't work that way.

It would take more energy to stop and dock your spacecraft with a supply depot than it would to simply continue on to Mars.