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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was the first to command the International Space Station, has just poked the cosmic pond. According to him, it's been several decades that we could have done a little tour on the Red Planet. But as he says, it would not have been without risks.
The conquest of space, that knows it! Chris Hadfield's cosmic CV would spoil more than one aspiring astronaut. In nearly 20 years, he has participated in two shuttles at NASA shuttles, made a short stay in the Russian vessel Soyuz and lived on board the ISS, which he even commanded. This man can boast of having spent 166 days in orbit ! With this experience and now retired, he has just shared his astronomical knowledge in a master clbad on an online knowledge platform. And it is his point of view concerning the conquest of Mars which interests us, in particular, today.
Technological Means Are There
" We could have sent people to Mars many decades ago. The technology that allowed us to go to the moon and therefore goes back to my childhood can lead us to March "says Business Insider, ] the former astronaut who will soon be 59 years old. And this conquest of the red planet does not seem to be a recent project since already in 1952, a NASA engineer had already worked on a mission project to reach it.
But having the technological means does not mean that it can actually be done without the risk of losing its life . And it is of course that Chris Hadfield insists. " The majority of the astronauts who would be sent there on a mission would not come back ," he warns.
We already know the risks that each space explorers when they leave on mission and we can not forget the number of times the space conquest was mourned or approached the disaster. From the fire that killed 3 people during a ground training before the flight of Apollo 1 to the explosion of the Challenger shuttle in 1986 which caused the death of 7 astronauts including a civilian through the avoided drama of Apollo 13 which remains in memory with the famous phrase " Houston, we have a problem "
Very high risks for man
The dangers would be increased for a trip to Mars. " She is further than we think. The red planet is 660 times farther than the moon . A return flight could take 500 days or involve staying in a kind of tiny tube for 3 years "says the former commander of the international space station. Nor does space travel have any consequences for health, as MaxiSciences has pointed out, having devoted an article on the toxic effects of the moon dust ] Thus a necessarily longer journey to the planet Mars would further expose astronauts to potential explosions to radiation to malnutrition, or even to famine . And for the moment, still remain to invent lighter and protective capsules.
And tomorrow?
Asked about ambitious current projects such as those of NASA of SpaceX or Blue Origin Chris Hadfield regrets that their plans still include the use of fuel to propel the shuttles: " It is as if we still used a sailing boat or pedal to try to go around the world " . A sort of techno-spatial anachronism !
Indeed, the use of chemical propellants is not as effective as one might think and requires above all to make sacrifices. Engineers who design a shuttle are obliged to limit the number of protections against radiation, food, tools and reduce the living space for make room for fuel necessary for the journey. But that the fans of the conquest of March rebadure themselves, the Canadian astronaut thinks that " someone will well end up inventing the ideal ship to which we have not yet thought "
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