One of the most important goals set by the American aerospace agency NASA is to deliver a man to Mars. The idea has been nurtured for many years and lately there have been real shifts in this direction. True, despite the fact that the agency is currently busy with the construction and testing of its most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), it would be fair to indicate that some exact and specific dates when the agency is going to deliver the first astronauts to the Red Planet, we have not yet seen.
But last week the curtain of secrecy was finally lifted. On Tuesday, NASA talked about the large-scale Deep Space Gateway, a manned orbiting lunar space station that could serve as a hub for a series of deep-space exploration missions and eventually a manned mission to Mars in 2033.
It should be admitted that all this sounds like some kind of science fiction (like Stargate minus wormholes), but the space agency is very serious about this issue and announced that the first mission to implement this project, carrying the name "Exploration Mission 1" (EM – 1), will take place next year.
"We are ready to put all the pencils in the box and we have everything we need to start this mission," commented Bill Gerstenmeier, Bill Gerstenmeier of NASA's manned flight program.
At this stage, it is planned to conduct a test flight of the SLS carrier in autonomous mode, however, the final decision on this issue has not yet been made and everything may change closer to launch. As part of this test launch, NASA is going to send the Europa Clipper into space, which in the future will have to study the eponymous satellite of Jupiter. After that, "SLS" is planned to be used in a series of missions in 2023-2026 and, using a carrier, deliver the necessary parts and components to the Moon's orbit for the construction of the Deep Space Gateway station.
Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), which is in Earth orbit and has a permanent crew, the station near the Moon will be much smaller in size and will mainly be used by astronauts only when it is necessary for further missions (there will be no permanent crew) … The station itself will consist of a power supply module, a small manned module, several docking and transfer gateways, and a module (or several modules) for research purposes. NASA believes that such a compact space port can be used, among other things, for a number of space missions, which will be carried out not only by a government agency, but also by private space companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
“I foresee options for the development of cooperation in several directions at once, both internationally and commercially, since the prospect of using the Gateway station in various directions is already seen. We are considering the possibility of building a system that can travel to different orbits and be used in a variety of space missions,”said Gerstenmaier.
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For example, the Gateway station could be moved and used as a support base for robotic or manned missions on the lunar surface, or placed in high orbit and used as a starting point in other directions of the solar system.
Along with the Deep Space Gateway station, it is planned to use the reusable Deep Space Transport spacecraft, which can be used in manned missions into deep space, including flights to the Red Planet. This unit is slated to launch in 2027. It will act as a kind of space taxi and transport astronauts from the Deep Space Gateway station to their chosen destinations, and then return the crew back to the orbiting space port, where they will be diagnosed, repaired and prepared for the next "trip."
NASA hopes to launch a lunar mission in the late 2020s. Within its framework, astronauts will spend from 300 to 400 days aboard the almost completed Deep Space Gateway station. If all goes well, the system will be used as a starting point for a flight to Mars in 2033. No landing on the Red Planet is planned as part of this flight. Instead, NASA is going to fly an orbital around Mars. But even so, people will have the opportunity for the first time with their own eyes to see what the current Mars looks like. According to NASA, this mission could take up to three years and may even fly around Venus.
Of course, it will be possible to talk about all this in more detail when NASA receives the appropriate funding, but the American government has already expressed interest and announced that the space agency should make Mars one of the main priorities in deep space exploration, while trying to return to the moon …
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK