For years, NASA has been promising to send humans to Mars on its huge new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and new Orion spacecraft. However, for about the same time, the agency could not get the details of exactly how it plans to use the $ 40 billion rocket and space equipment and do something that no one has ever done. The situation did not become clear even after the publication of a 36-page NASA report on the exploration of Mars in October 2015. And then finally the day came when specific numbers and dates began to appear in this project.
It all started on March 21, when US President Donald Trump signed a new decree, according to which NASA must deliver people to Mars by 2033. A week later, the space agency published the most detailed report on sending a man to Mars.
It should be noted that the report is clearly not intended for claustrophobic people or the faint of heart. Astronauts who agree to travel to the Red Planet will have to spend 3 long years aboard a locked "tin can", without having any chance of an emergency termination of the mission as soon as the device crosses the Moon's orbit. Moreover, the plan implies only an orbital flyby of Mars. Landing on the surface of our neighbor is not planned.
At least this becomes clear from a document presented by William Gerstenmeier, NASA's deputy chief for manned space operations. Gerstenmeier made a presentation at the meeting of the advisory board of the aerospace agency on March 28.
“NASA continues to take active steps in deep space exploration. The Moon is slated to begin building and testing systems needed for future and even more ambitious deep space missions, including a manned mission to Mars,”the US space agency said in a press release.
Artistic representation of NASA's Deep Space Gateway lunar orbital station (left)
Ars Technica reviewed this document and decided to provide short excerpts from it. So, the Gerstenmeier program for a manned flight to Mars consists of five stages:
Promotional video:
Phase 0
Includes the use of the International Space Station "as a test platform to validate and demonstrate key technologies in research operations and to generate commercial interest" from companies such as SpaceX, Boeing, Orbital ATK and others. The program is currently in this phase.
Phase 1
Conducting six space launches from 2018 to 2025. First, NASA needs to launch the inaugural launch of the SLS (a 98-meter-high launch vehicle that will replace the heavy Saturn 5 rocket used in the Apollo space missions to deliver astronauts to the moon). Considering that the first field tests of the Orion spacecraft are also planned for the first launch of the SLS, the agency plans to conduct five additional SLS launches after that.
One of these five launches will kick-start the Europa Clipper space mission - a space probe to Jupiter. The device will study the gas giant and its icy companion with the ocean hidden under the ice, where extraterrestrial life is assumed.
As part of the four remaining launches, parts of the new Deep Space Gateway (DSG) space station will be delivered to the lunar orbit. Astronaut crews of four will assist in the installation and maintenance of the station.
“For the DSG station, the possibility of its transfer is being considered both in a completely autonomous, robotic mode of operation, and in a manned mode. In the latter case, the station can be used for manned missions to the lunar surface, as well as in orbital support for other missions within the solar system,”Gerstenmaier said in a press release.
Phase 2
Phase 2 will culminate in the construction of a lunar orbiting space station and the launch of the Deep Space Transport (DST) by 2027. Then, in 2028-2029, four lucky astronauts will embark on a mission for a long (up to 400 days) stay at the station, being in a 41-ton residential orbital lunar module. Their mission will be to test the health of all DST systems.
Artistic representation of NASA's Deep Space Transport (right)
Phase 3
Phase 3 will begin sometime in 2030, given that the crew of the lunar station, as well as the DST transport ship, will not have any problems requiring changes in the set plan. Thereafter, there will be two more launches of the SLS launch vehicle. As part of the first launch, new provisions and fuel will be delivered to the lunar station. The second includes four astronauts. The first Martian crew.
As part of their two-three-year flight to the Red Planet, "most likely, a gravitational maneuver will be performed with the help of Venus, followed by a short-term stay in the orbit of Mars." At the same time, "after leaving the lunar space, the crew will have no hope of an emergency termination of the mission and an emergency return home," adds the Ars Technica edition.
Phase 4
Phase 4 is scheduled to be implemented after 2033 and is very vague at this point. In it, it is only possible to single out "the development and preparation of a robotic mission" for the delivery of infrastructure, equipment and provisions to the surface of the Red Planet, and actually "the first manned landing on Mars."
Whose boots will be the first to set foot on the surface of Mars?
All this undoubtedly sounds very interesting. Sounds so good it sounds too good. Especially against the backdrop of a seriously cut budget allocated for the aerospace agency by the US Congress. It is worth recalling that the total cost of all Apollo missions cost the country more than 4 percent of the total US budget. Today this would be about half a percent. But this is the moon. And we're talking about Mars. And not only separately about Mars, but also about the construction of a lunar orbital station, from which the dispatch will take place in the direction of the Red Planet.
Even if NASA really succeeds in implementing this project, the agency may face competition from private companies, which, by the way, it lists as partners. Who knows, maybe the US private aerospace sector will even be able to overtake NASA in terms of flights to Mars. And there are already some prerequisites for this.
Elon Musk, founder of aerospace company SpaceX, recently revealed plans to send humans to Mars by 2022. Boeing, a direct competitor to SpaceX, is also targeting the Red Planet. Musk, in turn, said that he was not at all worried about this, because his goal is "only" to colonize Mars and protect humanity from possible extinction on Earth as a result of self-destruction or some fallen giant asteroid.
“The desire to master Mars was expressed by several parties at once. It's good. It is very good. In such a case, it will be useful to have a backup or alternative plan,”Musk said in August 2016.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK
