Flights to Mars and Back Without Refueling with Martian Fuel
The Testudo project solves the problem of protecting the crew of interplanetary spacecraft from space radiation during slow, long and medium-speed flights. These flights are energetically more profitable than fast shuttle flights, which require organizing the production of fuel on the surface of Mars from local resources. New possibilities are being considered for increasing the carrying capacity of reusable interplanetary spacecraft, including the possibility of flying to Mars and back without refueling. Such shuttle flights are important at the first stage of the creation of a Martian colony, when the production of fuel from local resources hasn’t been organized yet.