- SpaceNews
VIVA – The Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA plans to send two astronauts to Mars and stay there for 30 days. To accomplish this mission, NASA wants the public to respond through a poll that will begin on May 17 to June 3, 2022.
NASA’s Director of Space Architecture, Kurt Vogel said that he wants to maximize the role of science in the mission to send humans to Mars.
“We also allow them to go around first before they adapt to space suits and walk in 30 days. It all relies on science.” Kurt Vogel said.
Two crew will remain in orbit while a two astronauts will visit the surface of Mars. The latter would have access to supplies sent to the surface beforehand via a 25-ton Mars lander, providing surface power and mobility, as well as a fueled up pre-deployed crew ascent vehicle to get them both back into orbit later.
NASA has a target to send astronauts to Mars by the end of 2030 or early 2040, as quoted from the site space on Thursday, May 26, 2022. This mission is very challenging, because the funding and technology will come into play at the right time.
For example, the travel time that still takes about 500 days gives the distance between Earth and Mars.
As known, the atmosphere of Earth’s neighbor is very thin. Its volume is only one percent of Earth’s atmosphere. This is because Mars is only half the size of Earth, so its gravitational force is not strong enough to hold the gas from escaping into space.
Meanwhile, the most abundant gas in the Martian atmosphere is carbon dioxide or the figure reaches 96 percent. While oxygen is only one tenth of one percent of the air on Mars. This number is not enough for humans to step on, especially to survive on that Red Planet.
So far, there has been no evidence showing any life signs on Mars. In addition to very minimal air, water is also very rare and the weather is extremely cold.
