Throughout the first half of the 20th century, people believed that there was a highly developed civilization on Mars. The strategy of space expansion was also built on this belief - scientists and rocket scientists strove for the Red Planet in order to establish mutually beneficial contact with the Martians.
However, Soviet and American scientific stations sent there in the 1960s have convincingly shown that Mars is an empty, frozen world with a weak atmosphere and no water bodies. A new look at the Red Planet forced to revise the projects of interplanetary expeditions. But which of these projects will be the main one? Who will fly to Mars?
See Mars and Die
Today, only three states have their own manned space program: Russia, the United States and China. At the same time, after the cruise ships "Space Shuttle" stopped flights and went to museums, the United States was forced to use Russian spacecraft "Soyuz" to deliver its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
How long this situation will last, no one can say: the schedule for the construction of the new American ships "Dragon" and "Orion" is constantly "shifting to the right." The Chinese are in no hurry to expand their presence in space: in the near future they have the construction of their own large orbital station, and flights to other planets are postponed indefinitely.
Nevertheless, the state space agencies periodically report on their projects for an expedition to Mars. Officials say such an expedition will take place in twenty to thirty years. And their caution in estimating the timing is understandable: the budgets allocated for manned space exploration are not high enough to seriously begin preparations for a flight to Mars.
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Individuals and organizations are another matter. Recently, a lot of noise has been made by the initiative of the Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who proposed to organize a colony on Mars from people who would agree to go there forever, without a chance to return to Earth. The Mars One project was launched in 2011, and a year ago the selection for the squad of colonists began. The Dutchman promises to send his first expedition in 2025.
Experts criticized the project fiercely. The desire to fly to Mars is not enough - you need powerful launch vehicles, spaceships, communications and much more. All this is not yet available, and on what funds will be built, none of the participants of "Mars-One" knows. But the main thing is that the very idea that suicides are going to go on an interplanetary flight repulses. With this attitude, only complete fanatics or cunning swindlers can talk about any project success.
Mass problem
However, in addition to the notorious Mars One, there is another interesting initiative proposed by the American engineer Robert Zubrin in the 1990s. Unlike the Dutch entrepreneurs, he started his project, called Mars Direct, with a technical justification.
The main problem of interplanetary flights, like half a century ago, remains the problem of mass.
To get to the moon, the Americans had to build a Saturn-5 rocket with a carrying capacity of 120 tons, and it was barely enough. Mars is much farther than the Moon, so an expedition there will require a ship with a mass of at least 300 tons (in some projects, the number of 1,000 tons also appears). At the same time, the carrying capacity of the best modern launch vehicles (the Russian "Proton" and the American "Delta-4") does not exceed 25 tons. That is, in order to assemble a ship in orbit capable of reaching Mars, it will take at least 12 launches of heavy and expensive rockets in a row - a rather difficult technical task in itself. And what will happen if at least one of the missiles fails at the start?..
Robert Zubrin undertook to reduce the mass put into orbit to the limit. He put forward an original idea: an automated spacecraft, on which the astronauts return to Earth, must fly in advance, land on Mars and, with the help of a small chemical plant, produce fuel (methane and oxygen) from local raw materials.
Only after the "return" ship is ready, the second ship - with a crew of four people - starts to Mars. They will spend 18 months there doing scientific research. Since Zubrin estimated the mass of each of the ships at 120 tons, only two Saturn-5 or Energia missiles would be needed to implement the entire expedition.
Such rockets no longer exist, and only the state space agency can create them. Therefore, Robert Zubrin does not abandon attempts to interest governments in his venture: he founded the Martian Society, which many prominent scientists and engineers joined. In addition, under his leadership, research stations were built in the Canadian Arctic and in the Utah desert, which simulate conditions similar to those in which "Marsonauts" will have to live.
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Family row
The mass problem is far from the only one. For example, experts still vaguely imagine how the factors of the space environment will affect the human body. If the destructive effect of weightlessness has been learned to overcome with the help of a complex of physical exercises and medical preparations, then the factor of radiation exposure remains poorly understood.
The detector installed on the American Mars rover Curiosity shows that a person may well be on the surface of the Red Planet for up to six months without a threat to health. But in outer space, during an interplanetary flight, the risk of harmful radiation increases many times over. Also, we shouldn't forget about periodic solar flares, which can literally kill.
Another aspect is psychological compatibility. Despite the strictest selection and numerous tests, the crews of spaceships do not always demonstrate coherence and mutual understanding. History has recorded conflicts among astronauts, which led to the failure of planned programs. The closest example is the Russian Mars-500 program, which was implemented by the Institute for Biomedical Problems in its own ground complex simulating an interplanetary spacecraft.
An international crew of six was in the complex from June 2010 to November 2011, performing procedures (including non-standard) that will be performed by real cosmonauts when flying to the Red Planet. The experiment was considered successful, but rumors leaked to the press that hostility quickly arose between its participants, which constantly grew, creating a nasty psychological atmosphere.
It becomes obvious that earthlings are not yet ready for a full-fledged expedition to Mars. Therefore, American billionaire Dennis Tito, who gained fame as the first space tourist, initiated a project for a simplified interplanetary flight. According to his plan, on January 5, 2018, the Dragon ship will go to Mars, the crew of which will be a married couple.
Astronauts will not land on the Red Planet, but will only fly around it and return to Earth on May 21, 2019. The idea looks reasonable, because only in conditions close to "natural", you can confidently answer the many questions arising from specialists. The experience gained by Dennis Tito's team will form the basis for preparing a full-fledged expedition to Mars.
Life on the Red Planet
Today we know for sure that there is no other civilization and never has been on Mars. But modern research shows that in ancient times the Red Planet was warmer, there were seas and oceans on it. It may well turn out that even the simplest forms of life arose there, which are still hiding somewhere in crevices and in underground rivers. If humanity begins a full-scale colonization of Mars, then there is a danger of destroying the timid alien biosphere.
So there is little point in rushing. It is necessary to continue the study of Mars with the help of scientific devices: it is necessary to draw up its detailed maps, determine the chemical composition of rocks, and build a climate model. Only after we are convinced that we will not harm the Red Planet with our invasion can we begin to develop it.
First of all, smart robots will go to Mars, which will build a base there and create supplies of air, water and fuel. Then several expeditions will follow without landing on the surface - you need to check the performance of interplanetary ships. Then the first landing will take place, and the cosmonauts will immediately settle in a comfortable base, where they can live for years. Even later, chemical generators will be launched, which will begin to restore the local atmosphere, bringing its density and composition to Earth's.
Someday Mars will become a second home for earthlings, because once it has gone out into space, humanity will not stop. The neighboring world will become ours, but this is unlikely to happen in the 21st century.
Anton PERVUSHIN