Talk:Mars cycler

Diagram needed
This article would benefit from a graphic, or a slow-moving annimated GIF, to demonstrate even one example of how such an orbital rotation might work. Does someone have a software app that can solve a set of specified equations of motion and draw up the orbital dynamics? N2e (talk) 20:24, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

There is a nice little simulator here

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=960

but I have no idea how this fits into copyright, so I'm not going to copy it over.

Kazuko Kodo (talk) 00:39, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

How to latch onto the cycler?
I don't see any explanation of this in the references or links. To dock with another spacecraft, you have to match its velocity. To match its velocity, you expend as much fuel as necessary to reach its orbit. How does having an existing vehicle in a desired orbit help a new vehicle get there too? Potatoswatter (talk) 17:00, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * You could stick a rotating tether on it, that would help by about 3km/s or so. But yeah, that's the problem with this idea.- (User) Wolfkeeper (Talk) 21:12, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

The other is counteracting the deceleration from docking. If you use a tether, rubber band, or tractor beam, that still slows the mothership. The passenger ship needs to resupply the fuel to bring the whole assembly back up to speed. Won't that be at least equal to the fuel budget for just doing it with one ship? There are no free lunches in climbing against solar gravity.
 * A cycler could act as a "fuel amplifier" to reduce the trip duration by accelerating constantly, and applying a sudden jolt upon docking. But getting a useful jolt would be a real challenge, with no current research. And constant acceleration for the rest of the trip would imply a path different from Aldrin's proposal. Potatoswatter (talk) 16:36, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Specifically, using an ion drive in the cycler would give it the freedom to not be an inertial cycler! Potatoswatter (talk) 16:40, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Oops, you just have to adjust the swingby to have extra velocity before docking. Potatoswatter (talk) 16:45, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * There's no free lunches, but you can make sure the same mass flow goes in each direction, so over a complete orbit, you neither gain nor lose energy (actually you can gain energy by taking stuff from Mars and dropping it nearer the Sun due to the Oberth effect).- (User) Wolfkeeper (Talk) 16:46, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The swingbys should obviate that worry. You just borrow momentum as needed from the planets.
 * Actually, a better solution comes to mind… the cycler is a string of magnetized bullets. The spaceship has an electromagnetic ring (or a few) which the bullets pass through. Then you can control the impulse imparted, and have at least some manageable gain. Also, control over the resulting trajectory for each bullet. Very different from Aldrin's vision, though. Potatoswatter (talk) 16:58, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * A taxi is lighter than a train, so it needs less fuel to accelerate and decelerate. --195.137.93.171 (talk) 18:52, 5 November 2012 (UTC)


 * A major advantage to having a "mothership" would be radiation shielding. When you don't need to launch a heavily shielded vessel out of orbit for every trip, launch costs drop massively. You could also re-use various other heavy equipment such as life support, bringing only consumables and spare parts. There are indeed no fuel savings if you're only launching, say, a probe, but humans have this pesky need for oxygen and not being killed by solar flares. In short, anything that's only needed for the trip could stay on the cycler while you only bring what you actually need when you get there. Doniazade (talk) 17:48, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Scientific American article
This Scientific American article briefly mentions Mars cycler, and refers to some NASA folks who considered it circa 2010-2011. This Way to Mars: How Technologies Borrowed from Robotic Missions Could Deliver Astronauts to Deep Space—By adapting ideas from robotic planetary exploration, the human space program could get astronauts to asteroids and Mars cheaply and quickly, by Damon Landau and Nathan J. Strange, Scientific American, November 29, 2011. N2e (talk) 05:19, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Intro
Not sure how to word it, but the first two sentences make it appear as if this sort of thing currently exists, and the Aldrin cycler is at least more than a concept.
 * "A Mars cycler (or Earth-Mars cycler) is a special kind of spacecraft trajectory that encounters Earth and Mars on a regular basis. The term Mars cycler may also refer to a spacecraft on a Mars cycler trajectory. The Aldrin cycler is an example of a Mars cycler." If someone has some ideas, go ahead.--ɱ	 00:20, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

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Animation
This article would profit a lot from an animation. The diagrams don't show properly how the planets move around while the cycler makes its orbit. --mfb (talk) 10:11, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

what's up with the red text?
it's weird. also how do talk pages work? Alexdapineapple (talk) 20:53, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
 * See Red link and Help:Talk pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:27, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Delta-V to enter and exit the cycler?
For each trajectory option, what kind of delta-V is required? 73.19.59.127 (talk) 15:41, 2 November 2022 (UTC)

Delta-V to enter and exit each cycler?
For each trajectory, what kind of delta-V is required? I could see needing a fast cycler for personnel and perishable freight, and wanting lower cost, lower delta-V 'slow freight' options. 73.19.59.127 (talk) 15:49, 2 November 2022 (UTC)