Since the 1960s, numerous spacecraft have whizzed past Mars or entered its orbit. Additionally, rovers and landers have touched down on its surface.
As Hays watched a large flying saucer land in Utah last year, she thought of her ambitious Mars Sample Return mission – MSR for short – which involves collecting samples from Mars and returning them on one-way flights back home.
Getting There
If we want to send humans to Mars, we will need rockets that are much faster than our old ones. Unfortunately, this won’t be easy: first the spacecraft must escape Earth’s gravity with minimal fuel usage; next comes Mars’ gravity which requires even more rocket fuel; finally it must steer clear of other planets’ gravitational pull if possible and eventually make its way toward its target destination – all these require lots of work before landing safely on its destination planet.
Spacecraft must also be designed to operate under Mars’ relatively weak partial gravity, which is about one-third that of Earth. Furthermore, in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) should allow them to take advantage of materials found there – something called in-situ resource utilization (IRU).
Nasa has developed ISRU technology, including solar electric propulsion. This method uses an ionised gas spray behind the craft to propel its forward momentum – similar to what was employed on Nasa’s Dawn mission and Japan’s Hayabusa craft, though for use on human trips to Mars which may last two or three years this may need to be scaled up significantly.
Getting to Mars
Assuming the success of Apollo Moon missions was proof enough, sending humans to Mars seemed the logical next step – however it represents both financial and technological challenges.
First you’ll need a rocket capable of transporting you both ways to Mars and back again, followed by selecting an ideal launch date – since Mars orbits around the Sun at different speeds and distances from us; you want to catch them when they are best situated for your journey.
Once they arrive, astronauts must adapt to living in an atmosphere with only a fraction of Earth’s gravity, dealing with radiation exposure and dealing with stress of being isolated for so long.
Getting on Mars
Spacecraft bound for Mars must be thoroughly sterilized prior to leaving Earth, otherwise they risk polluting life-detection experiments and even polluting the planet itself. Their long journey exposes them to radiation from deep space that must also be taken into consideration.
Mars’ atmosphere changes daily with weather and latitude changes, making landing on its surface challenging for spacecraft. Planners are considering options such as parking spacecraft in orbit instead of landing its lander onto its surface.
NASA and private spaceflight companies are making plans for sending humans to Mars, yet many questions remain as to what it will take for this venture to succeed. Will humans survive a two-year trip there, could they exist on an environment which is colder, dustier and has less oxygen? Additionally, what was Mars like prior to our current knowledge? Robotic missions have already explored its surface and orbit in order to answer such questions.
Getting off Mars
Returning home, first to Mars orbit and then back to Earth, can be one of the toughest parts of any journey. A key obstacle lies in meeting strict planetary protection protocols to avoid contamination when we finally land people there; that could prove challenging.
One solution could be parking a ship on one of Mars’ moons and using robots to explore it while keeping contamination to a minimum – similar to what has already happened with Nasa’s Perseverance and Ingenuity rovers; other nations are doing similar work.
Zubrin proposes using a massive spaceship capable of carrying multiple astronauts and cargo to Mars faster. By harvesting carbon dioxide from its atmosphere for fuel production during its return journey, this plan could save energy while potentially cutting costs considerably; according to his calculations, an effective mission between Earth and Mars should happen every 26 months beginning 2026.