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NASA estimates that in the next 25 years a man may be sent to Mars, but the technological and medical challenges are enormous
Deadly cosmic radiation, vision loss and atrophied bones are only a few NASA experts and officials said Tuesday
The US space agency believes that in the next 25 years, a man will be placed on the red planet But the technological and medical challenges that 's Opposition are huge.
"With the current budgets or more, it will take about 25 years to solve these challenges," said Tom Jones, NASA's retired astronaut.
"We have to start with some key technologies," he said at a press conference in Washington.
At a distance of about 225 million people. kilometers, Mars represents a bigger challenge than the Apollo missions on the Moon.
With the technology currently available, it would take up to nine months for an astronaut to reach Mars, and the physical cost of floating so long in weightlessness would be enormous.
For example, scientists believe that this could cause irreversible changes in the blood vessels of the retina, which would result in visual impairment.
In addition, after a while in weightlessness, the skeleton would begin to lose calcium and bone tissue.
With a gravity of only one third of that of the Earth, experts are still unaware of the effects of a one – year mission on the surface of Mars.
Better propulsion.
One of the ways to reduce the damage done 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 producing ergía on flights.
"If we start now, 25 years from now, we will have the technology to protect ourselves from these long travel times," he said.
Mars would take so long that an astronaut would receive the same amount of radiation that one considers 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," Jones said. .
Specialists have identified several technologies that need to be developed quickly, including a ship capable of withstanding the harsh entry on Mars and the soft landing, as well as the ability to return pbadengers to Earth.
NASA has a new robotic landing module called InSight that is heading to Mars where it will land on November 26th. e after taking off from California on May 5th.
The $ 993 million project aims to raise awareness of the conditions on Mars in order to send explorers and reveal the formation of rocky planets like the Earth. Billions of years.
Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, believes that "InSight will complete the" crucial unknowns "and help better understand Mars.
The mission of NASA will send a vehicle on this planet to determine the livability of the Martian environment, to look for signs of ancient life and to badess the natural resources and dangers to future human 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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