The 23rd is when the planets will align, literally, to give humans their easiest shot to fly over Mars than fly home. That’s when the red planet will be in position to give Earthling astronauts a gravitational assist, shortening the round -trip journey from two and a half years to one and a half.
According to the Chief engineer for NASA, Mars mission. Mr. Hoppy Price;
“This will be an opportunity to send a crew to the vicinity of Mars and bring them back. It would not be a landing mission because we don’t think we would be able to build and test a lander by 2033.”
A manned Mars landing would be much further down the road, and even a manned flyover, for now, is just talk. But here at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, the gathered space community is buzzing with hope that it will happen soon.
According to the NASA Mars Explosion Program Director ERIC LANSON;
“It’s a dream come true. I can’t wait since I was a little boy. I’ve always dreamed about working in space. I’m doing it now, and I can’t wait to be a part of this great adventure.”
NASA still lacks money and a government mandate from Congress to officially greenlight a Humans to Mars mission. But the agency has been preparing for years. The so -called transit habitat, in which Mars -bound astronauts would travel, would likely look similar to a module of the International Space Station. NASA is studying ways to improve life support systems when aborting the mission is not an option.
NASA Human Research Program Head JANCY MCPHEE Revealed that,
“We have the baseline systems that we have been using on the International Space Station, but as with the entire mission, we will have to take fresh eyes on all of our systems and make sure that they play well together and they will work for a crew that is autonomous and a very long way from home.”
NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon are also part of the prep work for Mars. Agricultural scientist Daniel Tompkins will send up so -called moon gardens ahead of NASA astronauts returning to the lunar surface in 2025.
Fownder of GROWMARS; Daniel Tompkins Said;
We’re going to have the first butterfly, the first bee, the first fish. We’re going to pack this full, rather complex ecosystem and really see how it changes over time and how it’s going to be.
