[mym1990]

As someone that spends almost no time thinking about hibernation, this was a pretty interesting read! On the problem of weight needed to sustain a crew to and from Mars, could we not setup something like a network of stations for the sole purpose of resupplying ships on long journeys? A moon base seems like it would be a good start as well.

[credit_guy]

> On the problem of weight needed to sustain a crew

They say 4 people need 11 tons of food for a 1100 day mission. That’s 2.5 kg per person per day. It looks like this includes water. Water can (and is) recycled in space missions. A lot of food in space is dehydrated (you can buy astronaut ice cream at any science museum, and it’s not that bad). You may get away with only 0.5 kg of solid food per person per day.

If they did the same type of generous estimates elsewhere, then maybe 100 tons would suffice, instead of 300. And 100 tons is how much the Statship is supposed to be able to carry.

[enkid]

You would have to decelerate and then accelerate to dock with each station. It would take more fuel then it would save by a lot. Edit: Alternatively you could accelerate the fuel, but it wouldn't be any better. You also have to worry about getting these stations in orbits that would be useful for the trip. Considering the Earth, Mars, and the stations would all have different orbital velocities around the sun, this wouldn't be an easy task.

[zabzonk]

who supplies these stations?

[mym1990]

I guess there will be plenty of takers to be the who, but the how is more of the engineering bit. I am guessing if interplanetary travel does become a thing, some kind of open space network will need to be present to facilitate travel.

[dylan604]

autonomous droid ships like the SpaceX capsule resupplying the ISS. You just modify the capsule so the hatch is the size of the container(s) inside like a cargo plane. The capsule docks, containers unload, capsule detaches and heads home. Next human ship docks, loads containers, detaches, continues mission.

seems simple enough

[karmicthreat]

Except that seems risky as hell. Much better to have everything aboard ahead of time instead of hoping everything goes right with a en-route logistics chain.