The plans of the aerospace company SpaceX in eight years to send a man to Mars are realistic, the Danish scientist believes.
While entrepreneur Elon Musk's plans to colonize Mars and create a sustainable civilization there sound like a sci-fi movie, they may well come true.
So says Danish Mars explorer Kjartan Münster Kinch from the Niels Bohr Institute.
Elon Musk heads the aerospace company SpaceX. On Tuesday, he said at the International Aeronautics Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico that, in his opinion, the first colonizers could leave Earth as early as 2024.
“It looks like they are already working to send a man to Mars. Obviously, SpaceX's plan is very serious and should be treated with more attention than other similar plans in the past,”says Kjartan Munster Kinch.
The best time to send a manned rocket to the Red Planet is when Earth and Mars pass each other. This happens every 26 months. During this period, a flight in open space will take about six months.
“If something goes wrong, the project will be dropped 26 months ago. So I would not bet money on a specific date, although I think these plans are very serious."
Before the first future Martians hit the road, it will be necessary to establish a base on the lunar surface and test all systems there to make sure that they work stably.
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“The huge advantage of the Moon is that if someone suddenly falls down with appendicitis or some screw breaks, then it will be possible to get there in just two days, not six months,” explains Kjartan Munster Kinch.
“For one reason or another, Mars seems to people more attractive than the Moon, and we can add that Mars is a more obvious option for the life of a large group of settlers,” the scientist adds.
Flight to Mars by SpaceX
The reason is that Martian days resemble those of Earth. In addition, it will be easier to grow plants on Mars, because there is water and minerals in the soil. The moon is completely dry.
“However, Mars has a rarefied atmosphere, so it is terribly cold there at night - down to -60 degrees. But in the afternoon the temperature rises to about +20. In addition, oxygen masks or some models of spacesuits will have to be used outside the base,”says Kjartan Munster Kinch.
Mars is not only of interest to Elon Musk and SpaceX. The US space agency NASA, which is investigating how long stays in space affect the human body, announced that it will also send humans to Mars by 2030.