Three giant steps: Nasa's plan to send astronauts to Mars is unveiled
Science
Three giant steps: Nasa’s plan to send astronauts to Mars is unveiled
NASA has outlined the many challenges that remain before humans can set foot on Mars, calling them “solvable” but setting no firm date for an astronaut mission to the red planet. Updated details of the U.S. space agency’s three-stage Mars strategy were contained in a 36-page document released ahead of talks with Congress about budgets for space exploration and a major international meeting of the space industry to be held in Jerusalem next week. Astronauts who journey to Mars could spend three years in deep space, where radiation is high and so are the risks of cancer, bone loss and immunity problems, according to the document, titled NASA’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration.
Living and working in space require accepting risk, and the journey is worth the risk.
from “NASA’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration”
The plan ahead is divided into three stages, the first of which is already under way with testing and experiments on human health and behaviour, life support systems like growing food and recycling water, and 3D printing aboard the International Space Station. The second phase, called Proving Ground, begins in 2018 with the first launch of the new deep-space capsule Orion atop the most powerful rocket ever built, the Space Launch System. After that, the space agency plans to practice other missions in the area of space between Earth and the moon, or in the moon’s orbit, known as cislunar space.
