How are we going to go to Mars? That’s a question on a lot of people’s minds. Well…at least on a few people’s minds. In this post, we are going to discuss how we plan on going to mars and what it will take to get there.
Why go to Mars?
The need to go to Mars isn’t really a need, but more of a pathway to future expeditions into the universe. The fact that it is the closet planet to earth at ~78,000,000 KM makes for a compelling case, but Mar’s also has an atmosphere that can aid the expedition. Its atmosphere isn’t all that great, being 100 times thinner than Earth’s and being made up of primarily carbon dioxide, yet it can still allow for humans to explore it with a greater chance of building a sustainable habitat for long term missions. One of the greatest things about Mar’s atmosphere is that it still is capable of it to have weather and at one time was thick enough to hold running water.
Due to the fact that it could have had running water means that sometime in the past, it could have has some life living on the surface. This, as a scientific reason, is a great reason to visit mars due to the fact that we may be able to find some history as to the formation of life in the universe. It can also give us some insights into how Earth could change over time. At one time in history, the two planets were more similar than they are now and we could find out how the Earth will change over the next few million years.
Researching Mars
In order to go to Mars and not have it be a catastrophic failure, we need to find out if humans are even capable of completing research, building a sustainable habitat, and gathering resources from or below the surface of Mars. For us to do this we had to first and foremost find out if we could even send something to Mars. Through our trials, we found out that we could successfully send ships to Mars and the trip takes about six to eight months depending on when a ship leaves Earth for its journey. The next step that we had to take (which is currently the step we are in now) is to send machines capable of carrying out scientific studies (called rovers) to ensure that it would even be possible for humans to survive on Mars and that the trip would be worth it. We have currently sent four rovers to Mars: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. These rovers have had various tasks to complete from finding evidence of water on the surface of mars to discovering if Mars even has, or had, the correct chemical ingredients to support life. In 2021, we expect to send another rover to Mars to due more research and to see if it is possible for humans to explore the red planet.
Preparing for Humans to Visit Mars
Once we have determined Mars to be a viable destination for humans to visit, we need to set up the infrastructure for us to successfully visit. This step is a very expensive and time-consuming step as there is quite a bit of preparation in order for the Mars mission to be successful.
We could always just pack up some supplies onto a craft, throw in some astronauts, light the torch and send them into space for a seven month trip, use the atmosphere of Mars to slow them down, burn some thrusters and use parachutes for a safe landing, and have humans on Mars, but there are a few issues with doing that. The astronauts chosen for this mission would more than likely never return to Earth as most or all of the craft’s fuel would be expended in this endeavor so they would be forced to stay on the red planet for the rest of their lives and “the rest of their lives” may not be that great or that long. Without the capability to breath on Mars or even survive without a suit, it means that all of the necessities for a human to survive would have to be packed onto the ship that they came in. This means that the astronauts would be significantly restrict to only traveling within a small distance from the ship drastically limiting human exploration of the red planet. The number of supplies that they would be able to bring would be severely limited as we couldn’t pack more than a few months’ worth of sustenance onto the same ship as the astronauts; which might have been depleted on the seven-month journey to Mars in the first place.
This would mean that we would send these people to another planet just so that we can say that humans have landed on Mars and a few weeks to months later we could say the first human death on Mars has occurred. So the question is, how do we prepare for humans to arrive on Mars?
Building Infrastructure to go to Mars
What many people do not understand is the massive amount of resources and fuel it takes to launch a rocket from Earth to outside of the atmosphere. Earth has a very thick atmosphere and a powerful gravitation pull. This means each pound of anything currently costs us ~$10,000 USD. Without boring you with crazy amounts of math, you can think of at like this: the weight of the payload (or the stuff you want to put into space) can account for ~1% of the total weight of the craft leaving Earth with the rest of the weight being structure, systems, and fuel. This doesn’t mean that we couldn’t put the needed resources into space, just that it will cost lots of money and the further away from space we go, the more fuel it will cost and the less payload we can send. We are currently trying to reduce the cost per pound to hundreds and eventually tens of dollars, but that is expected to take ~50 years to get to that point. With companies like SpaceX working on reusable rockets, we are on our way to achieving these numbers.
Many theories have come about to aid with the issue of cost and we have come up with some compelling theories as to how we can overcome this. Many of these theories include building either a space station near Earth or the Moon that we can “drop off” supplies until we have collected enough to continue our space exploration. This will allow us to add more payload per rocket as we will only need enough fuel to get just outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and return for the next trip. We could also use this to our advantage and assembly a large craft in space that we could then launch from outside the atmosphere resulting in a better payload to fuel ratio. In a perfect world, we would have a “gas/loading” station outside of the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars to get us to and from both planets with ease.
Once we have figured out how we get enough of what we need to Mars, we next have to figure out how to prepare facilities on Mars for long term human survival. We wouldn’t want to send humans to Mars with no kind of infrastructure already on the surface. So we would need to send some kind of “modules” prior to sending astronauts that can be used as soon as astronauts arrive. Sort of like building a “house” so when humans arrive, they have a place to live. This will require our rovers to explore and find a location that would be a great candidate for a human colony to be erected. Once we know where to build said colony, we could start using our newly create space/moon station to assemble modules and launch them to Mars where that can land and be waiting for humans.
Sending humans to Mars
We have finally reached the stage that we have been waiting for. The process of sending humans to Mars. We have everything in place to get there and now we just have to do it. We first would want to get our astronauts to our space station, after we have a craft assembled in space and loaded with the needed supplies for the seven-month trip and any resources they would need for the transition to using the colony once arriving. Once we had our supplies and astronauts loaded on to our craft, we can send them on their way. If we had the means of some sort of long term hibernation, we could put our astronauts to “sleep” for a long period of time to preserve resources. Once they arrived, comes the process of landing on Mars at the desired landing area and start to prep for colony living by activating and connecting all the modules that have been previously sent. Once they have successfully colonized Mars, we can work on setting up a refueling station and possibly a space station to allow for travel to and from Mars.
The process of traveling to Mars is a long, expensive, and arduous task. Some of the technology required, we already have and some we will need to research. It is possible to jump the gun and send astronauts within the next few years to Mars but to have the best chance of survival and the most meaningful mission, it will take possible tens of years before we successfully land a human on the surface of Mars.
If you would like to hear a condensed version of this blog, check out the Lyz Talks podcast available on anchor.fm or wherever you listen to podcasts.
References to check out for more research
- https://www.space.com/16903-mars-atmosphere-climate-weather.html
- https://sci.esa.int/web/bepicolombo/-/56015-missions-to-mercury
- https://m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/Why_go_to_Mars
- https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/overview
- https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-rovers/en/
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