Mars
Of course we want to solve all of the world’s problems, but what if we can’t? Or what if the planet is threatened by an outside force, like an asteroid? I’ve heard the phrase “there is no planet B”. Many, including Elon Musk, would disagree.
Mars is obviously not habitable in the same way that Earth is, but creating a human presence on Mars can only help humanity.
The Red Planet
Mars is the holy grail of human space exploration.
At the Air Force Academy, I was fortunate enough to take a manned space flight class taught by two former NASA astronauts: Col Jim Dutton and Col Gary Payton. They both flew on the Space Shuttle, and Col Dutton spent time on the ISS.
The class was structured around planning a human mission to Mars. The class of about 20 students was divided into groups of 5. We each came up with a different mission architecture. We looked at short duration vs long duration trips. We looked at different crew sizes and different lengths of stay on the surface. We looked at in situ resource utilization, radiation exposure, rover designs, nuclear power, food and water production, and many other aspects of the complex mission. After the class, I came away with a new appreciation for how nearly impossible it seems to put humans on Mars.
But in the words of the great Muhammad Ali, “Impossible is nothing.”
Mars Colonization
As most people on Earth probably know by now, Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, was created in order to found a human colony on Mars.
Why Mars? Earth’s two closest neighbors are Venus and Mars. Venus has a solid surface, but has unsurvivable temperatures and pressures. It is the hottest planet (even hotter than the inner-most planet, Mercury) and even the strongest man-made materials melt within minutes on the surface of Venus. Mars is farther from the sun and shows great potential to host human inhabitants. It’s human inhabitants will have to live in life support systems and wear EVA suits to explore, but we already have experience with these types of living conditions from the Apollo program and the International Space Station. The reason that Mars is so much harder than the moon or the ISS is because it is too far away for Mars voyagers to rely on Earth for support. They must be totally self-sufficient.
Anyone who has ever been a part of a Mars mission, or witnessed one, is familiar with this phrase,
“Mars is Hard”
NASA has been planning to send humans to Mars ever since the Apollo program. Unlike SpaceX, though, NASA relies on government funding from tax-payer dollars to fund its missions. This gives it less freedom to take risk and necessitates a slower production process. Even still, NASA continues to do amazing things. The Artemis program is NASA’s “moon first” approach at getting to Mars. I think this is a brilliant approach (especially since Elon is leading the way with the full-send Mars-yesterday approach). A long-term human presence on the moon is the next logical step in human space exploration.
If there is an emergency on the ISS, an astronaut can board their transport ship and return to Earth in a matter of hours. The life support systems are designed this way. A round-trip journey to the moon takes about 6 days. This means that if an emergency occurs early in the mission, astronauts must be able to survive 6 days before they can get back to Earth. The life support systems are designed this way. This has happened before, as you probably know. Apollo 13 demonstrated this type of emergency, and its successful recovery, perfectly. In space, you can’t just “turn this car around” and come home. You have to fly it out. NASA’s Orion capsule and space suits are designed to keep astronauts alive for 6 days in the event of a catastrophic malfunction. There are radiation-hardened boxes that astronauts can climb into in the event of a solar storm, and while it would be uncomfortable, they could survive inside these for multiple days. If the Orion capsule completely failed because of something like an explosion or a meteorite strike punching a hole in it, the Artemis space suits are designed to be self-sustained lifeboats for astronauts to get into and survive for up to 6 days. This is a complicated engineering problem. To survive for 6 days, astronauts must be able to eat, drink, breathe, and expel waste -all while living in their suit. This is difficult, but not impossible.
Now for Mars. If going to the moon was running a mile, going to Mars would be running the Badwater 135-mile ultra-marathon through Death Valley. It’s in a league of its own. It’s on another planet. Or, well, it is another planet. It’s damn hard. Mars and Earth are in two different orbits around the sun. They only align once every two years, allowing a few-week window in which we can launch missions to the red planet using modern technology and fuel.
How long does a mission to Mars take? This is what marssociety.org has to say:
“This depends on the trajectory taken to Mars, i.e. whether an opposition-class or conjunction-class mission is chosen.
In both missions, Earth to Mars transit time is roughly 180 days. However, since the two planets must also be aligned properly for the return flight from Mars to Earth, this is where their similarity ends. In an opposition-class mission, astronauts would stay on Mars for 30 days, followed by a 430-day return mission that would swing by Venus for a gravity assist, for a total round-trip of 640 days. In a conjunction-class mission, astronauts would spend 550 days on Mars, followed by a another 180-day return leg along roughly the same route as Earth to Mars, for a total round-trip of 910 days.
While on the surface a shorter round-trip time might seem safer, because the astronauts on an opposition-class mission actually spend more time in interplanetary space (610 days vs. 360 days for a conjunction-class mission), hazards associated with a zero-gravity environment and cosmic radiation actually increase. Additionally, life support systems have a considerably higher possibility of failing on an opposition-class mission, as they must run for an extra 250 consecutive days.
Considering that the hazards of an opposition-class mission are actually greater and that the science and exploration return on such a relatively short stay on Mars is considerably lower than in conjunction-class missions, the Mars Society, along with many scientists, support conjunction-class missions.”
Clearly, you can’t just crawl in your space suit lifeboat and wait that one out. As I said, Mars is hard. But it is not impossible. If any problem is worth solving, this one is.
Moon first
I mentioned that NASA’s “Moon first” approach is a good one for many reasons. It is not a necessary approach (Mars-direct is always an option), but it is a good one.
The Artemis program aims to put the next humans on the moon, and the first woman on the moon. I think that is terrific. My friend, and one of our honorary Living Intense founders, Kjell Lindgren, is a part of the Artemis team. If all goes according to plan, he will one day walk on the moon.
The plan is to implement a long-term human presence on the lunar surface. This is an important distinction between Artemis and Apollo. Apollo revolved around short lunar surface visits with no permanent settlement. Artemis is designed to create a permanent base on the lunar surface with a permanent orbiting habitat, called the Lunar Gateway. This outpost will operate much in the same way that McMurdo station does in Antarctica, along with other polar outposts. These settlements are manned year-round, but must be resupplied. They are not self-sustained. It is conceivable that one day in the not-too-distant future, the lunar surface will be a destination for scientists and explorers like Antarctica is today. Then, eventually, for the very daring, the Marian surface.
There is a planet B.
Mars is calling
And we must go.