This is a high goal for American leaders have set their views for several generations, and President Donald Trump began his second term by declaring his aim to reach the red planet.
“And we will pursue our real destiny into stars, launching American astronauts to plant stars and lines on Planet Mars,” he said during the inauguration speech on January 20.
Elon Musk-Ceo Space Technology Company Spacex-Has the President’s ears this time, suggested we would see a more difficult encouragement to travel 140 million miles to Mars.
“Can you imagine how great it makes American astronauts plant a flag on another planet for the first time?” Musk said on the day of the inauguration.
It takes a very big effort from NASA to make the mission to Mars a reality, experts told ABC News. It must be built on the Artemis program – which Trump founded in 2017 to build the presence of humans on the Moon – to make people set foot on Mars, according to NASA.
“The exploration approach of the month to Mars Nasa is currently calling for a mission in and around the moon under the Artemis campaign to prepare for human missions in the future to Mars,” said an agency spokesman in a statement sent to ABC News. “We look forward to listening more about Trump’s administrative plan for our agency and exploring exploration for the benefit of all, including sending American astronauts on the first human mission to the red planet.”
However, the mission cannot just launch every time the crew and technology are ready. Scott Hubbard Running the Mars Agency Program From 2000 to 2001served as Director of the Ames Research Center for 4 years and was in executive management in NASA for 20 years.
He noted that there was a special window for when to launch a mission. When the earth and Mars are parallel in their orbits around the sun, the distance and energy needed for spacecraft to travel to Mars is minimized.
Planet Mars is displayed in this picture from Viking Orbiter I Voyage in 1998.
USGS/JPL/NASA
The next window is only one and a half years.
“Even with the most powerful rocket we have, there is a 20 day window every 26 months,” he told ABC News. “And that’s all. I mean, that’s really there or forgetting it.”
Every time the mission takes off, it will be a very challenging resistance test that is filled with problems that have never been found before, need an astronaut crew who is brave enough to travel.
Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have felt it. The couple has been in space for nine months, with an 8 -day trip planned to the International Space Station (ISS) received an unexpected extension for security reasons.
“So once we transitioned not to return to our spacecraft, we turned into a member of the crew, at the international crew, members at the International Space Station,” Wilmore told ABC News. “And that’s what we have done since we are here.”
Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Nick Hague, who are at the international space station, discuss the challenges of sending people to Mars.
ABC News
Williams noted that this kind of flexibility would be the key for anyone who hoped to go to Mars.
“I will say that nothing goes according to plan and is ready for it,” he told ABC News. “You know, a little challenge, a little difficulty bringing out the best in us.”
This experience one day may be useful for astronauts who travel 7 months to Mars, fellow members of their ISS crew, Nick Hague, told ABC News.
“You know, being here, this is not about a single mission. This is not about a single journey to Mars,” he said. “We are part of the long inheritance of exploration, human exploration, space, and we do our small parts to try to advance it.”
The ISS crew is examining several logistics challenges that will be presented by a long journey to Mars.
“How do we defend ourselves? We cannot package all the resources we need on the journey to Mars and maintain a long mission,” Hague said. “So we have to find ways to grow the food we will need.”
Astronauts must also be able to replace broken equipment during the trip.
“So, you can’t take every part of the backup with you,” Wilmore said. “You must have several ways of additive manufacturing – 3D printing.”
This trip will also expose astronauts in conditions that can cause many health problems, including the risk of potential cancer and mental health problems, along with bone and muscle problems, Rihana Bokhari space physiologists told ABC News. Getting a message back to earth can also take time, he said.
“The delay in communication will be very large when it comes to Mars, about 20 minutes each road is farthest,” he said.
Arranging feet on the fourth planet from the sun may be a destination, but only half of the battle. The mission round trip will take at least three years.
“In addition to transportation, you need a habitat. We have not built a place for astronauts to live for 6 or 7 months that are needed to get there and have a very reliable life support,” Hubbard, a former leader of Nasa Mars, told ABC News.
In the race for this screen from the video taken by Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, the Mars Mars Helicopter Agency was displayed before taking flights on Mars, on April 19, 2021.
JPL/NASA
Hubbard believes NASA must think of the long term for his first manned mission to Mars.
“Not all opportunities are the same,” he said. “And if you have to look to 2033, you see opportunities that come only once every 15 years. You can get the most mass to Mars from another 20 -day window.”
Considering the length of time for the window from now on, Hubbard noted that Apollo’s mission followed the same time line – from the first test in 1961 to Apollo 11 Landing on the Moon in 1969.
“And that not only requires technological advances but also political will,” he said. “This will bring people to see that this is part of what we do as humans.”