NASA Reveals Plans to Fly 4 Astronauts to Mars

Jakarta –

Sending humans to Mars is a mission carried out by many space agencies. Including NASAwho recently revealed his plans to explore Mars by sending out a 30-day manned mission.

In a discussion titled ‘Moon to Mars’, NASA’s Director of Space Architecture Kurt Vogel explains the rough plan of the mission, from transportation to Mars to astronauts’ habitation while on the Red Planet.

Given the journey to Mars takes months, NASA plans to develop a spacecraft that doubles as a residence. The aircraft will use a hybrid rocket that combines chemical and electric propulsion.

For this mission, NASA plans to send four astronauts. Two astronauts will stay in orbit, while the other two will descend to the surface of Mars.

Before the astronauts get to the surface Mars, NASA will land a 25-ton lander carrying supplies. NASA also provides a special vehicle to bring astronauts back into orbit after the mission is complete.

In order for astronauts to survive on Mars for a month, Vogel said two astronauts could live inside a pressurized rover that could provide both a place to live and a place to complete scientific missions. Moreover, the gravity on Mars is only a third of the gravity on Earth.

“Our assumption there is that the crew will be deconditioned and we will need a lot of time to adapt to partial gravity,” Vogel said, as quoted by Futurism, Thursday (19/5/2022).

“So we wanted to get the most out of science so we let them go around before they were conditioned to put on a spacesuit and walk and get the most out of that science in 30 days.”

In the future, the duration of the mission to Mars could last from 30 days to 500 days. But according to Vogel and his team, a 30-day mission on the surface of Mars may be easier to realize given the huge amount of costs and logistics involved.

But before a mission to Mars could be launched, NASA have a pile of homework to complete. The United States space agency is still preparing to launch the Artemis I unmanned mission to the Moon using an SLS rocket.

From there, NASA plans to establish a Lunar Gateway to signify a permanent human presence on the Moon. Only then will they develop Transit Habitat, a spacecraft concept that will be used to transport astronauts to Mars.

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