Interplanetary Outpost: The Human and Technological Challenges of Exploring the Outer Planets [Paperback]

Interplanetary Outpost follows the mission architecture template of NASA's plan for Human Outer Planet Exploration (HOPE), which envisions sending a crew to the moon Callisto to conduct exploration and sample return activities. To realize such a mission, the spacecraft will be the most complex interplanetary vehicle ever built, representing the best technical efforts of several nations. A wealth of new technologies will need to be developed, including new propulsion systems, hibernation strategies, and revolutionary radiation shielding materials. Step by step, the book will describe how the mission architecture will evolve, how crews will be selected and trained, and what the mission will entail from launch to landing. However, the focus of Interplanetary Outpost is on the human element. The extended duration, logistical challenges, radiation concerns, communication lag times, isolation, and deleterious effects on the human body will conspire to not only significantly impair human performance but also affect the behavior of crewmembers. This book addresses each of these issues in detail while still providing the reader with a background to the necessary elements comprising such a mission.Potential destinations.- Mission objectives.- Mission architecture.- VASIMR: the radical rocket.- HOPE hardware.- Descent and landing.- Selecting and training an interplanetary crew.- Biomedical and behavioral aspects of traveling to Callisto.- Voyage to Callisto.- The surface mission: establishing an interplanetary outpost.

Erik Seedhouse is a Norwegian aerospace scientist whose ambition has always been to work as an astronaut. After completing his first degree in Sports Science at Northumbria University, the author joined the legendary 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, the world's most elite airborne regiment. During his time in the Para's , Erik spent six months in Belize, where he was trained in the art of jungle warfare and conducted several border partols alonglS”