Category: Mars Expedition

Module Configuration

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Image credit: NASA Lewis
Image source: National Archives

Vehicle Comparison

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Image credit: General Dynamics / Astronautics
Image source: SDASM Archives

Inside Deimos

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ROMBUS

Configuration for a manned Mars mission (Project Deimos).

  1. Six man Mars landing capsule;
  2. Pressurized tunnel;
  3. Toroidal living compartment;
  4. Liquid hydrogen tanks (8);
  5. Spherical liquid oxygen tank
  6. Booster centerbody.
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Project Deimos – Mars Landing Module

  1. Earth-return capsule;
  2. Command centre and pressurized tunnel;
  3. Separation joint, for return to Mars orbit;
  4. Mars landing propellant tanks(6);
  5. Ground access hatch;
  6. Mars-launch platform;
  7. Payload and power supply equipment compartment;
  8. Mars-launch propellant tank;
  9. Landing and take-off rocket motor;
  10. Jettisonable closure panel;
  11. Mars-entry heat shield;
  12. Extensible landing gear(4);
  13. Altitude-control system quads (4).

Frontiers of Space
Philip Bono & Kenneth Gatland
Macmillan, 1969

Image credit: Douglas
Image source: Numbers Station

Deimos Storyboard

Mission to Mars (Project Deimos)

  1. Hydrogen tanks jettison as ROMBUS spaceship accelerates from Earth-orbit;
  2. Two hydrogen tanks jettison after retro-thrust into Mars orbit. Mars Landing Module separates from ROMBUS parent above the cratered deserts;
  3. After soft-landing, astronauts begin exploration setting out research equipment and taking meteorological soundings;
  4. Ascent stage of Mars Landing Module returns astronauts to ROMBUS parent in Martian orbit for return to Earth.

Frontiers of Space
Philip Bono & Kenneth Gatland
Macmillan, 1969

Image credit: Douglas
Image source: SDASM Archives

Mars Operational Phase

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It’s January 1972.

Having safely glided to a stop on a Martian plateau, this illustration depicts the Operational Phase of the mission. The crew have already inflated their six meter habitat (it’s a tent), assembled the flat-pack steamroller and are shown removing the nuclear reactor so it can be dragged at least a kilometer from base camp so it won’t kill them.

With the reactor at a safe distance, the crew of eight have 479 days to explore the surface of Mars and maybe do a spot of gardening.

You can read more about this fascinating 1960 Boeing Study here.

Image credit: Boeing / Chicago Daily News
Image source: Numbers Station

Don Charles

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Image credit: Douglas
Image source: SDASM Archives