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Scientists and NASA officials said on Tuesday that scientists had to overcome difficulties before astronauts could enter Mars, causing vision loss and atrophied bones. The US space agency believes that in the next 25 years, a man will be on the red planet but the technological and medical challenges that hinder him are enormous.
"With current budgets, or even more, it will take about 25 years to solve these problems," said NASA's retired astronaut, Tom Jones, who has traveled in space in different missions.
"We must start with some key technologies" he said at a press conference in Washington.
At a distance of about 225 million kilometers, Mars represents a greater challenge than the missions of the Apollo to the Moon.
With the technology currently available, an astronaut would take up to nine months to reach Mars and the physical cost of so long floating in weightlessness would be enormous.
For example, scientists believe that this could lead to irreversible changes in the blood vessels of the retina, which would lead to impaired vision.
In addition, after a while in weightlessness, the skeleton would begin to lose calcium and bone tissue.
With a gravity of one third of that of Earth, experts are still unaware of the effects of a one – year mission on the surface of Mars.
Better Propulsion
One way to reduce damage to the human body is to dramatically reduce travel time to the planet.
Jones believes that nuclear propulsion systems would have the added benefit of generating energy during flights.
"If we start now, in 25 years, we may have technologies to protect us from these long travel times," he said.
Under current conditions, a single leg of the trip to Mars would take as long as an astronaut would receive the same amount of radiation as that considered safe throughout his career.
"We still have no solution in terms of security, protection against cosmic rays and solar flares to which (the astronaut) is exposed during this transit time," said Mr. Jones.
Specialists have identified several technologies that need to develop rapidly, including a ship that can withstand the harsh entry and landing of Mars, and the ability to bring pbadengers back to Earth.
NASA has a new robotic landing module called InSight that is heading to Mars where it will land on November 26th after its takeoff from California on May 5th.
The $ 993 million project aims to deepen the understanding of the conditions on Mars in order to send explorers and reveal the formation of rocky planets like Earth billions of years ago.
Jim Garvin, Chief Scientist of NASA's Flight Center Goddard Space, believes that "InSight will complete the" critical unknowns "and help to gain a clear understanding of Mars.
In 2020, another NASA mission will send a vehicle on this planet to determine the livability of the Martian environment, to search for signs of ancient life and to badess the resources natural hazards and dangers for future explorers.
In addition, private companies such as SpaceX and other countries are developing technologies that could be used in future missions to Mars.
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