Earth_Return_Mission
Earth Return Mission
The Earth return mission development idea is to allow people on Mars to return to Earth using Earth Return Vehicles (ERV's). The ERV's are already in the simulation, represented as buildings in some of the settlement templates. The ERV building represents an Earth return rocket vehicle on top of a launch platform which includes resource processing capabilities to generate the methane-oxygen fuel needed for launch. This is based on the Mars Direct mission plan.
We would need to represent the launch vehicle portion of the ERV as a separate entity in the simulation. When preparing to return to Earth, the astronauts will need to make sure there is sufficient supplies (fuel, lifesupport, etc) for the trip. The crew will enter the vehicle and everyone else at the settlement will need to be either inside or a certain distance away outside. The vehicle will launch, leaving just the ERV platform building behind (should this still be a viable building, or need to be salvaged?).
The leaving crew should be recorded and removed from the simulation. Perhaps follow up events from the mission over time will indicate whether the mission was successful or not. This might affect morale at the settlement or for people on Mars in general.
How should an Earth Return mission be determined, scheduled, etc? Perhaps each person on Mars will have a planned tour of duty length of time on Mars. This might be a matter of months, years, or indefinate stay. There might be illnesses, injuries, unhappiness, overcrowding, emergency situations, etc. that would trigger people wanting to leave Mars earlier.
If people have a desire to leave Mars to return to Earth, they could gather at a settlement with a viable ERV and sufficient supplies to launch a mission. When a sufficient number of people are available and ready for launch, one of them could start the Earth return mission and they could start preparing for launch.
There should be certain risks of launching based on the skills of the crew and the condition of the ERV.
Feel free to add to this development idea.
