YES HERE SHE IS REBORN! I decided that with the comic coming underway and my understanding and comprehension of complicated sciences increased I should give the star of the show a proper design. The time taken for this design was immense, researching liquid ammonia cooling, vacuum optimization for engines, orbital periods, aerothermodynamics, atmospheric pressurization, solar winds, liquid oxygen and hydrogen densities, specific impulse, and more. I am so pleased with this design and took me so long and so many tries you can see the paper torn where I kept needing to erase and redraw. Also all the math shown is slightly off as I forgot to account for dry mass of the ship so some of it is off and I would have erased it but I didn't bring my notebook with me before I left but I took this picture before I left.

Now well the new current design differs heavily from the original in nearly every way I tried to maintain as similar as a profile and air of structure in the new current one, more of like a refit over an evolution, much like how the ISS evolved from the design of the Space Station Freedom project. This can be seen in the clear profile of the ship showing a forward command module, dual habitation rings, and larger diameter aft propulsion section. Many new things have been added or shifted to other areas as well, such as on the original design having a large chin and belly for storage space, these have been moved outside to external pods on the second section. There's more to get into so I'll simply get on with the show.

The want of a crewed man mission to Mars has always been one in the forefront of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs since the first mentions of the organization. With the launch and permanent manning of the International Space Station a plan was drawn up to make this dream a reality, originally called the unassuming name of "Mars 2020" (not to be confused with NASA's project of the same name consisting of the Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity helicopter) it involved the use of a yet to be designed space craft to go to Mars and land a Crew on the ground and have them live, conduct experiments, and study the planet for a time of 6 months before returning to the craft and returning to Earth. Fairly quickly with the knowledge and experience gained from the ISS the plan to use a large capsule similar to that of either Apollo and Soyuz but to use a proper vessel so that the crew has the ability to move around properly and not feel cramped. This radically changed the nature of the designs being submitted and the plan to use as many compatible or similar systems as the ISS was decided on to keep development costs and times down to a minimum, this sadly would push the mission back farther than expected as not only did some parts and components need to be transferred to the ISS as that program took priority but then ran into development issues as contractors feel behind on development of systems such as the Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dreamchaser space plane and Space Exploration Technology Corporation's Falcon 9 reusable second stage. However those set backs paled in comparison to the flooding and subsequent lose of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the late 2010s knocking out one of the largest launch sites and place to launch the SLS Cargo which was one of the few rockets capable of delivering the large and heavy components necessary for completion of the Spacecraft which had now had its final design decided upon being commonly called a "Powered Station" for being essentially a Space Station with engines. At this time it was clear that a goal of 2020 was not going to be achieved and the project was renamed to "The Horizons Program" and was to be supported by Remus 1 and 2 Missions launched on SLS Cargo Block 2 rockets our of Vandenberg Space Force Station to preemptively send cargo to the landing sites on Mars. While launches on board Ariane 64s, Starships, SLS Cargo Block 1s, and Angara A5s.

The design focused around a central core comprised of 3 sections 4 meters in diameter and 20 meters long for the first, 28 meters long for the middle, and 18 meters long for the last. To this a 4 meter by 9 meter tall section for docking to the ISS was placed on the first section by use of the now accepted International Docking Adapter would allow docking with the ISS or any craft which used the IDA standard. The center section would act more as a connection area for the 2 large rings each 6 meters in diameter at the main area and a rotational diameter of 76 meters, which would house tests better suited under gravity in the front ring, and crew quarters and common areas in the rear. The middle section is also home to the Exposed Space Laboratory which is used to house experiments and expose them to the harsh vacuum of Interplanetary space and see their reactions to things from the lack of a magnetosphere, solar winds, and more. An airlock is located to the port side to allow egress to EVA for work on the hull or ESL. At the front, acting as the Command Module of the Horizons would be a Sierra Space Corporation Dream Chaser spaceplane although without its Shooting Star service module and capable of housing 7 crew, this would also act as an emergency egress vehicle for the crew in case of emergency and act as the return vehicle for the crew upon returning to Earth. Connected to the first section of the vessel would be a small module with 3 IDA ports for connecting 2 Red Dragon Spacecraft with reusable second stage of a Falcon 9. This would be the vehicle in which the crew would land on Mars, entering the atmosphere engine first, would aerobrake down through the atmosphere before using the grid fins and engine thrust from both the Raptor engine and Super Draco thrusters to steer and touch down at the landing site vertically. Upon completion of the 6 months on Mars the crew would reenter the vehicle and launch to rendezvous back with the Horizons. 2 of these are carried in case of either needing to exit the Horizons in Mars after they had launched from the surface or as a secondary return craft back down to Earth's surface. The last section houses a cupola module identical to that of the ISS along with a robotic arm for help in EVA and a variety of tasks, unlike the ISS where the Canadarm is mounted to a moving base that rolls along the truss structure, the arm aboard the Horizons walks along the hull by grabbing special locking points allowing it to move nearly anywhere on the exterior. The rear is taken up front and center by large fuel and oxidizer tanks totaling 32 meters long and 12 meters wide at its thickest. The forward hydrogen tank has a total fuel capacity of 1,056,000 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and the rear oxygen tank has a capacity of 176,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen which gives the ship a majority of its 1,732,000 kilogram mass. To power the Horizons the ship is equipped with 2 Astrium Aestus Vacuum Optimized Engines giving a total 4.558 Meganewtons of thrust at a Specific Impulse of 904.6 seconds allowing for the 8 Kilometers per Second of Delta V needed for a round trip to Mars and back.

To provide power to the craft the installation of 8 Large Roll Out Solar Arrays developed from the International Space Station's Power Augmentation Program consisting of solar arrays that measure approximately 10 meters wide and 60 meters long providing roughly 4,800 square meters of area to absorb sunlight and provide power, the advantage provided over the older style of Arrays used on the ISS is the L-ROSAs are more efficient while also being better controlled so that incase if an unwanted increase in power can be rolled in and not used. Cooling fir electronics and the heat management of the craft is provided by 8 sets of External Ammonia Cooling Loops connected to 8 pairs of Heat Rejection System Radiators. A Nitrogen Tank Assembly is located on the underside of the center section just below the airlock, while 8 Ammonia Tank Assemblies are located on the interior side of each ring on the opposite side of each HRSR. The total area of the External Active Thermal Control System is roughly the same as the L-ROSAs at approximately 4,800 square meters, however they rotate to maintain perpendicular to the Sun so that they show as little surface as possible to keep solar heating to a minimum to keep heat rejection as high as possible. These can also be extended or collapsed based on needs.

The idea of building more Horizons spacecraft has been going around since before the project even started, with the expense and time consuming construction of both the Horizons and the ISS it was agreed that only more would be build upon success of the first mission, yet even then total amount build would remain low at between 3-4 craft, although yet unconfirmed and the order unknown it is believed that follow on sisters would be named "Infinity" "Eternity" and "Immensity"

Name: Horizons
Years of Construction: 2005-2030
Length: 107m
Beam: 203m Overall 76m Excluding Solar Arrays & EATCS
Height: 203m Overall 76m Excluding Solar Arrays & EATCS
Crew: 7
Engines: 2x Astrium Aestus Pressure Fed Hypergolic Liquid Fueled Engines
Fuel: Monomethylhydrazine (MMH)
Oxidizer: Dinitrogen Tetroxide (N2O4)
Delta V: 8km/s
Thrust: 4.558 Meganewtons
Specific Impulse: 904.6 Seconds
Attitude Control: Large Inertia Flywheels and Quad Block R-4D Pressure Fed Hypergolic Thrusters
Mass: 1,732,000kg Fueled, 500,000kg Empty