61 Virginis Mission Design: Ship Mass

I'm continuing questions rooted in the same idea: a manned mission to a planet around 61 Virginis. The first set of related questions was asked here.

We're sending a crew of twelve. They'll be in mild stasis for most of the mission, though will have to wake up and move around in a gravity environment periodically for health reasons. As such, the ship will need a livable environment with some sort of rotational gravity in at least one part, though it won't need to be large (one small room where two to four people can hang out).

So, the question is, how much does the ship need to mass in order to get there safely? I'm looking for large scope numbers sufficient to use with the following graph:

Here are a few things that come to mind:

• Primary propulsion will be via solar sail, but destination maneuvering, orbital insertion, etc. will be required. Presume deceleration on the other end is provided by the same mechanism as acceleration on this end.

• Power generation by small nuclear plant is possible (international nuclear treaties are ignored in order to get the development done).

• People only need to be awake for one month per year, so food stuffs for a crew of twelve can be the same as for one crew member who's awake the entire time.

• Radiation shielding? Is it reasonable to say that the power plant is sufficient to generate a magnetic shield that will protect sufficiently?

I realize this is a broad question, with a lot of variables. But I'm only looking for "orders of magnitude" accuracy, so "500,000 kg - ish" would be a sufficient answer.

posted about 8 years ago

J.D. Ray‭

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