Unleashing the Power of the Mars Cycler: SpaceX Starship to play a huge part?

If you’ve been watching along here for quite some time, you will know that the team and I have been releasing some deep dive videos that look into the complexity of long duration crewed spaceflight. The primary concerns of course being the health of astronauts aboard these missions. To do all of this stuff right and protect those squishy fragile human bodies on board, it is going to take a lot of equipment. That also means a lot of mass. Well, here we explore Unleashing the Power of the Mars Cycler. Would SpaceX Starship to play a huge part? Almost certainly if SpaceX's dreams of low mass to orbit become reality. What if I told you, that once we get all this up to the required speed for the journey, that was it. A reusable station taking trip after trip, only needing tiny course corrections from time to time? Well, with a nod to Buzz Aldrin, may I present to you the Atomic Powered, Shielded, Spinning Starship Mars Cycler!

The Hidden Threat to Our Astronauts - Marcus House

Artificial Gravity is Critical for Mars Exploration & Beyond - Marcus House

Mars cycler architecture utilizing low-thrust propulsion (PDF)

Dennis Chamberland - Departing Earth Forever
(Book Two - Alien Worlds, explores similar topics)

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[Lost-In-Blank]

Marcus, I'm 68, former mainframe programmer, now retired. Your videos are the highlight of my weeks !
I follow a couple of hundred YT channels, a half-dozen of which are on space. Yours is the very best!

[JohnSostrom]

Excellent program. The time spent putting this together was time well spent. Thanks to you and your team.

[riancor]

I didn't know about Aldrins Mars Cycler. The concept first comes to me in the book The Marsian. Thanks for the update 🙂

[pauljcampbell]

What a ripper episode Marcus! Well done to you and the team!

[thejesuschrist]

Absolutely LOVE these deep dives, this one in particular! Thanks Marcus! 🙏

[rorykeegan]

Buzz is far more than just a guy with a good right hook ...

[pacldawson]

This was a fascinating episode. The possibilities that exist are mind-blowing.

[UnclePie-]

I've been obsessed with the idea of dual Mars cyclers for a very long time. Seeing everything I've read compiled into one 20min video is music to my ears, and hopefully gets others interested in the concept too. I shall certainly be sharing this :)

Keep it up pal, great video as always ❤

[bryantaustin]

Thank you for this. Near future space exploration is a subject that doesn’t get enough attention and is rarely portrayed in an inspiring way in film and television. Videos like this one keep me much inspired 😊

[brookestephen]

for cyclers to work, you need space stations at the source and destination. You have to separate the functions of landing on a planet/moon from joining the cycler. Can you imagine just how much fuel is needed for each trip? You could ferry fuel to the orbiting stations for use by the cycler taxis. That way cycler taxis don't have to land, and can be designed without atmospheric protection, parachutes and landing legs - a huge savings in weight which conflates to higher speeds for less fuel.

[MortenSlottHansen]

Wow - never knew about this concept for traveling - brilliant! Thanks for sharing and making everyone more informed 🙇🏽‍♂

[ryann]

JUST got done reading The Martian, so this was perfectly timed

Wow Marcus, you and your team did awesome with this episode. 👍 Thank you so much

[abhijeettube]

Wow, I came for the weekly video, but this one is a treat. Nice video . Keep it up Marcus.

[cmrck]

LOVE this episode! The cycler is one of my favorite concepts to date. I think they should use Starship to build giant cyclers that could have multiple starships docked to them as landing craft. Have about 10 to 20 of these constantly running at all times and you’re going to be delivering thousands of tons to mats a year.

[EdwardRLyons]

I have to say, the segues into the sponsor's advert is always so well done, so seamless! Kudos, Marcus and team!

[kylewood]

As always, thank you Marcus (and team) for the great content!

[chriskelvin]

Catching the train to Mars....this makes sense. it could also carry sensors, comm arrays and experiments so that while it's dead-heading without passengers it's still doing work out there. Thanks Marcus, I hadn't heard of this concept before!

[twoplanetlife]

Well done, Mr House! Thanks for going deep on the Dual Aldrin Cycler. You nicely and correctly placed it in the arena of future things that are simultaneously: feasible, aspirational, and darn-hard to pull-off. There is lots of potential here for engineers for decades and generations. If we come back in a hundred years this will be established and as important to two planet life as the interstate system now is to keeping society moving.

[cipedead]

Space is amazing. It’s a grate time to be alive. Thank you MH for this look at life in space.