It would be smaller than an airplane chances are. Here is Inspiration Mars.
Inspiration Mars Foundation
where the volume is about 17 cubic meters - so that's the same as 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters approximately occupied by a couple.
Also their proposed capsule is a Bigelow inflated module with no airlock or windows.
You'd need to be a special kind of person to tolerate a mission like that. Two people living for a year and a half in a space smaller than the typical bathroom and with no windows :). It doesn't seem too likely it will go ahead but I think they already had volunteers.
Right now anyway - we couldn't send a really big spaceship to Mars, unless we assemble it in orbit around Earth first, like the ISS and then send that to Mars which would be hugely expensive.
Or we could send many smaller spaceships to Mars so you have a larger one there when you get there by joining them together.
That's the Mars One plan of course - for the surface of Mars.
But later we may have space planes that can just take off from a runway on Earth and fly into LEO. And with space planes in orbit - size of space shuttle or larger - refueled in orbit - maybe they could fly to Mars also.
I think myself it is not going to happen in the very near future though. Apollo 11 was preceded by many previous missions first to LEO and then flyby of the Moon. Problem with Mars is that - we don't have any previous experience of such a long mission. I think surely we need to do similar length missions closer to home, e.g. to the far side of the Moon L2, first.
Also - I think myself that we need to look carefully at issues of artificial gravity, and closed system habitats. And remember that out at Mars if you get an Apollo 13 type accident, you are going to die, is nowhere you can get to within a few days. So systems have to be very reliable and not dependent on supply every few months, and no chance of a lifeboat that you can use to escape to Earth with a few hours notice as they have on the ISS. And no direct communication with experts on Earth in event of problems, you may have to wait 40 minutes for an answer at each step in your conversation as you explain to them what the problems are.
But - as for being able to live in such a small space - well some people can do it. Probably not the likes of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
But you get people who travel for months on a small boat in the open sea, with nothing except a small cabin to live in.
For instance the great pacific race, tiny boats for three months at a time, rowing all the way
About The Great Pacific Race - Great Pacific Race
You also get people who spend months in submarines, or weeks in caves, exploring such deep caves you spend many weeks just getting down to the deeper parts of the cave.
Perhaps the longest of this type though, the most committed meditators for instance in Tibetan Buddhist traditions who typically mediate for three years - and some of them - for twelve years or more. For instance in a small cave, smaller even than the Inspiration Mars spaceship. They even sleep sitting up in a small "meditation box" three feet square. See for instance:
Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment by Robert Walker on Some ideas about Buddhist teachings
Not that I expect astronauts to be recruited from yogins in the Tibetan meditation traditions - but just to show what is humanly possible.
So certainly some people could manage being in a small spaceship for months on end. Even to spend 12 or 20 years in a spaceship on your own with only Inspiration Mars type amount of space available - that is humanly possible. If you solve the other issues, then in principle it is possible to send such a mission to Jupiter or even further afield.
Not for me! I suffer a bit from claustrophobia, I think I'd need to wait until you have cruise ship type spacecraft, to go to Mars orbit myself, and airplane size ships to go to orbit :). I could never spend a year or more in a small spaceship like that.
Well - there is something they could do. With the use of the Virtuix Omni - and the Occulus rift - they could simulate a 3D virtual world inside of the spaceship. Could that, by giving the illusion of a much larger space - help even those who have claustrophobia and who need lots of space to live there?
If they have several passengers - each just enough space for a virtuix omni treadmill - and they interact with each other mainly via 3D virtual reality - would that help make a long distance journey tolerable even for people who need a lot of space to move around in, and can't bear living in closed spaces for long periods of time?
As you'll see from my other posts I don't think we'll get humans going to the surface of Mars in the near future - because of the problem of how you can be reasonably sure not to introduce Earth life that will interfere with the search for life on the surface which is the main reason many scientists want to go there.
But might get them going to Mars orbit, if so I think that is easily humanly possible even in a small spacecraft, if you are careful in your selection of astronauts - choose astronauts who have already shown they can tolerate confined spaces out of immediate 2-way communication with Earth for long periods of time - and if we can solve the technical, and health and survival issues involved.
Or - maybe - if you are going there to explore the surface of Mars via telepresence anyway - they all have these omnidirectional platforms and 3D technology - perhaps that idea of a 3D virtual world for the journey also. Or even an apparently much larger spaceship that they live in, in virtual 3D.
Just an idea.
Inspiration Mars Foundation
where the volume is about 17 cubic meters - so that's the same as 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters approximately occupied by a couple.
Also their proposed capsule is a Bigelow inflated module with no airlock or windows.
You'd need to be a special kind of person to tolerate a mission like that. Two people living for a year and a half in a space smaller than the typical bathroom and with no windows :). It doesn't seem too likely it will go ahead but I think they already had volunteers.
Right now anyway - we couldn't send a really big spaceship to Mars, unless we assemble it in orbit around Earth first, like the ISS and then send that to Mars which would be hugely expensive.
Or we could send many smaller spaceships to Mars so you have a larger one there when you get there by joining them together.
That's the Mars One plan of course - for the surface of Mars.
But later we may have space planes that can just take off from a runway on Earth and fly into LEO. And with space planes in orbit - size of space shuttle or larger - refueled in orbit - maybe they could fly to Mars also.
I think myself it is not going to happen in the very near future though. Apollo 11 was preceded by many previous missions first to LEO and then flyby of the Moon. Problem with Mars is that - we don't have any previous experience of such a long mission. I think surely we need to do similar length missions closer to home, e.g. to the far side of the Moon L2, first.
Also - I think myself that we need to look carefully at issues of artificial gravity, and closed system habitats. And remember that out at Mars if you get an Apollo 13 type accident, you are going to die, is nowhere you can get to within a few days. So systems have to be very reliable and not dependent on supply every few months, and no chance of a lifeboat that you can use to escape to Earth with a few hours notice as they have on the ISS. And no direct communication with experts on Earth in event of problems, you may have to wait 40 minutes for an answer at each step in your conversation as you explain to them what the problems are.
But - as for being able to live in such a small space - well some people can do it. Probably not the likes of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
But you get people who travel for months on a small boat in the open sea, with nothing except a small cabin to live in.
For instance the great pacific race, tiny boats for three months at a time, rowing all the way
About The Great Pacific Race - Great Pacific Race
You also get people who spend months in submarines, or weeks in caves, exploring such deep caves you spend many weeks just getting down to the deeper parts of the cave.
Perhaps the longest of this type though, the most committed meditators for instance in Tibetan Buddhist traditions who typically mediate for three years - and some of them - for twelve years or more. For instance in a small cave, smaller even than the Inspiration Mars spaceship. They even sleep sitting up in a small "meditation box" three feet square. See for instance:
Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment by Robert Walker on Some ideas about Buddhist teachings
Not that I expect astronauts to be recruited from yogins in the Tibetan meditation traditions - but just to show what is humanly possible.
So certainly some people could manage being in a small spaceship for months on end. Even to spend 12 or 20 years in a spaceship on your own with only Inspiration Mars type amount of space available - that is humanly possible. If you solve the other issues, then in principle it is possible to send such a mission to Jupiter or even further afield.
Not for me! I suffer a bit from claustrophobia, I think I'd need to wait until you have cruise ship type spacecraft, to go to Mars orbit myself, and airplane size ships to go to orbit :). I could never spend a year or more in a small spaceship like that.
Well - there is something they could do. With the use of the Virtuix Omni - and the Occulus rift - they could simulate a 3D virtual world inside of the spaceship. Could that, by giving the illusion of a much larger space - help even those who have claustrophobia and who need lots of space to live there?
If they have several passengers - each just enough space for a virtuix omni treadmill - and they interact with each other mainly via 3D virtual reality - would that help make a long distance journey tolerable even for people who need a lot of space to move around in, and can't bear living in closed spaces for long periods of time?
As you'll see from my other posts I don't think we'll get humans going to the surface of Mars in the near future - because of the problem of how you can be reasonably sure not to introduce Earth life that will interfere with the search for life on the surface which is the main reason many scientists want to go there.
But might get them going to Mars orbit, if so I think that is easily humanly possible even in a small spacecraft, if you are careful in your selection of astronauts - choose astronauts who have already shown they can tolerate confined spaces out of immediate 2-way communication with Earth for long periods of time - and if we can solve the technical, and health and survival issues involved.
Or - maybe - if you are going there to explore the surface of Mars via telepresence anyway - they all have these omnidirectional platforms and 3D technology - perhaps that idea of a 3D virtual world for the journey also. Or even an apparently much larger spaceship that they live in, in virtual 3D.
Just an idea.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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