Humans-to-Mars within our Lifetime
“…Human-to-Mars missions and eventual colonization is inevitable for our species and will probably happen within our lifetime, ie, within 25-30 years — maybe even earlier with the exponential rise of technologies, the so called ‘Moore’s Law’ and the current rapid rate of new discoveries and innovations. It is an intrinsic part of our evolution, our Humanity, and our innate drive to expand and explore the “Unknown” — driven by our human “curiosity”. It takes the ‘true’ pioneers, visionaries and explorers — the ‘out-of-the-box’ thinkers — who will take humans beyond Earth’s cradle and finally open up the vast Universe to the millions of terrestrial inhabitants.
NASA Journey to Mars plans to explore the Red Planet is underway with the building and testing of the Orion Capsule and the SLS system that will be powerful enough to take the crew to Mars.
Click link to read NASA outlining plans and next steps in human journey to Mars
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-releases-plan-outlining-next-steps-in-the-journey-to-mars
“Dr Susan Jewell MD, Mars Without Borders, MWOB, Founder, President & Commander Crew145, Crew 151 and crew member of FMARS MA365 Crew144 Analog Astronaut, MarsUK Analog Astornaut Crew134 and upcoming Crew158 is a strong advocate for supporting and moving Humanity tobecome a multiplanetary species and to finally, become martian settlers.
A man on Mars is no longer a subject of Hollywood science-fiction movies. There are more and more scientific and engineering proposals trying to solve the main constraint of the first manned mission to the Red Planet. As it was with the first landing on the Moon, this mission still raises many controversies among the scientific community in terms of feasibility. Public and private entities state different technological readiness levels for sending people to Mars.
Nevertheless the question about the first man landing on the red soil of our smaller celestial neighbor is not ‘if we will get to Mars’ but when will we get there. The main goal in the long run is to send the first settlers to Mars where they can establish a self-sustaining colony, which within decades, after arrival of new settlers, can develop into a Martian civilization.
The main constraints at the moment include:
- flight duration, which is around 2 years with current propulsion technology;
- life-support systems, which will help the crew survive the flight and the harsh environment of Mars;
- self-sustainable habitat, which will help establish long-duration presence on the red planet.
There are also many other aspects including psychosocial and physical challenges, which need to be well-understood before such a mission starts.
On the other hand humankind has proved time and time again that they could adapt to new environments very quickly. Often this adaption was a trigger to develop new technologies which transformed society. Mars science will definitely be the next big leap for a better tomorrow.
Over the decades NASA and variouse space agencies have place robotic “eyes” on the Martian surface which allowed us to “peep” into this fascinating world that could one day be our “second home”. The successful landing and the past two years of Mars explorations with NASA /JPL’s Rover”Curiosity” has open Humanity to the wonders and potentials of human settlements on the Red planet.
Credit: NASA /JPL : Curiosity Rover on Mars
Recent discoveries from scientific data has shown Mars has water trapped in the soil and that once it had large masses of water covering the surface. This is a positive sign as it will allow humans to “live off the Martian land” using in-situ resource utilization, ISRU, concepts and principles
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Mars Oceans existed billions years ago (artist impression)
We believe that Mars settlement will be the first chapter in the history of mankind as a multi-planetary species, helping us have a “second home” in the Galaxy.
