Dawn Light: Mission to Mercury

STAGING THE MISSION

With a tooth-and-nail struggle for domination and exploitation of Mars by the major powers, the international mission to Mercury is a big public relations effort. Surplus lunar equipment, proven over twenty years of hard service, is heavily modified for the task.

DL-1: Robot Team - Automated probes build the initial, human-habitable base.

DL-2: First Team - Four crew members. Arriving two years later. Their mission is to build out the base at Chao Meng-Fu crater.

DL-3: Research Team - Eight additional crew members. Arriving six months later. Scientists with a scientific mission.

MISSIONS

Robot Team

• Chao Meng-Fu Base Construction Mission Phase One
• Chao Meng-Fu Base Construction Mission Phase Two
• Haystack Cache Pre-Placement

First Team

• Chao Meng-Fu Base Construction Mission Phase Three (Habitation)
• Chao Meng-Fu Base Construction Mission Phase Four (Peaks of Eternal Light)

Expedition Goals

• Volatile Ice Prospecting, Research and Utilization
• Chao Meng-Fu Volatile Ice Research Phase One (Basic Research)
• Chao Meng-Fu Volatile Ice Research Phase Two (Volatile Ice ISRU)
• Chao Meng-Fu Volatile Ice Research Phase Three (He-3 ISRU)
• Mercury Magnetic Field Research Project
• Haystack Outpost Construction (Haystack)
• Helioseismography Research (Haystack)
• Vulcanoid Hunting Mission (Haystack)
• Haystack Overland Mission/Volatile Ice Pathfinder Mission (Haystack/CMF)
• Atmospheric Research (Haystack/CMF)
• Mantle and Core Depth Ground-Penetrating RADAR Project (Haystack/CMF)
• 3200 Phaethon near-sun sensor array piggyback (Haystack/CMF/orbit)