Bimodal NTR Mars mission (2001) Part Three After taking their historic first steps on the Martian surface the crew would run a heavy insulated cable to the nuclear power source (cable is visible foreground – power-cart not visible in this image) then spend the following days erecting the surface trans-hab living quarters and assembling the Mars Surface Rover. Once base camp is fully operational the crew would engage in approximately 502 days of surface exploration and sample collection activities, ranging as far as several hundred kilometers from their landing site. My research material did not cover this, but I believe one, or possibly both, landers would be equipped with a robotic arm for cargo handling – something similar to the Space Shuttle Canada-Arm – it seems to make sense that this would be necessary for handling the larger masses (such as the elements of the surface rover and the collapsed trans-hab) however the lack of documentation (and polygon limits) led me to leave this as a matter of reasoned conjecture. I want to thank everyone who has commented and followed the series – and for those who have not, the previous posts can be found at the following links: Bimodal NTR Mars mission (2001) Part One Bimodal NTR Mars mission (2001) Part Two NASA Mark III surface exploration suit 3DS models courtesy of NASA. Resource Image Credits: Mars surface textures and modeled Bryce terrain features use elements cropped and blended from NASA Mars lander and surface rover mission images, including Viking, Phoenix, and Spirit, as well as elements from ESA Mars Express images, which were used to modify terrain profiles and provide granularity of texture – ESA image use guidelines require individual and specific image source identification and credit. The following image files provided texture source material: ESA Source Photo Credit, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) image ID number, SEMTKGOR9HG, image ID number SEMLGLCUE1G, image ID number SEMA73VTGVF, image ID number SEMW7HLZLAG, image ID number SEMOGT5DHNF.