Upcoming space missions to Mars have garnered the lion's share of the headlines in recent years, but there is still a lot of research work to be done before visiting the Red Planet. And that's why the aerospace agency NASA announced plans to send astronauts on a journey around the moon.
The last time humanity landed on the moon was in 1972. However, NASA believes that lunar (i.e., located between the Earth and the Moon) orbit could be an excellent place to create a launch pad for launching missions to Mars in the 2030s.
Greg Williams, deputy assistant chief of NASA's policy and planning division, speaking this week at the Mars Human Flight Summit, revealed that the agency has a mission to the moon in 2027. A crew of astronauts will be sent to our satellite, which will spend a whole year in the orbit of the moon.
Such a long stay in lunar orbit is dictated by the need to conduct at least 5 additional missions. Some of them will be manned, some autonomous. As part of these flights, it is planned to deliver all the necessary equipment to the satellite orbit. The list of this equipment includes both an orbital living station for future Martian crews and the Deep Space Transport spacecraft, which is already under development. In the future, NASA wants to use it for flights to Mars.
“If we can do a one-year manned mission using Deep Space Transport in lunar orbit, we can thoroughly figure out the possibility of sending this thing with people on board on a thousand-day journey to Mars and back,” says Williams.
Now this circumlunar mission does not even have an official name. However, the term "test cruise" was originally used on the sidelines of NASA. As a rule, it is used in the navy, when carrying out checks on new ships.
NASA has previously announced that it is going to build an orbiting lunar station Deep Space Gateway and use it as a launch pad for launching missions into deep space, including flights to Mars. For this, the agency wants to use the most powerful launch vehicle in the world - the Space Launch System (SLS) - which will be used to deliver the necessary equipment. The first launch is planned for next year.
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All of this equipment, according to Williams, is still in development, so there are no more detailed details on how astronauts will spend 365 days in orbit of the moon. Nevertheless, everything that can be learned during this mission can be very useful when flying to Mars.
Note that scientists are still versed in the issues of what consequences can be expected by people during long space flights. Recent studies have shown that even a short flight outside the Earth's atmosphere can lead to liver disease in mice. In addition, after a 340-day stay of American astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the ISS, NASA discovered that he had some problems with vision, bone density, muscles, and sleep disturbance. All in all, there is still a lot of work to be done before the thousand-day trip to Mars can be safe.
It's also worth noting that NASA is seeking support from private companies. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin can help in preparing and implementing a manned flight.
“We are open for cooperation in matters of travel to Mars. One of the things we will be doing over the next few years will be to bring all the ideas and solutions together,”added Williams.
“The key goal now is to find how, together, under the leadership of NASA, we can actually get closer to these manned missions to Mars,” concluded Williams.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK