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Mars target for NASA and its astronauts. Even if they will have to withstand deadly radiation, potential vision loss and atrophy of bones, experts from the US Space Agency said Tuesday, November 13 that they believe man could tread the soil of the red planet in 25 years.
"With the current budget, or a slightly increased budget, it will take 25 years to address these issues", predicted retired astronaut Tom Jones, who hung up the boots in 2001. Problems that are significant: located on average 225 million kilometers from the Earth, Mars is nine months away. Nine months without gravity for astronauts, while scientists warn of periods in weightlessness too long. They are likely to alter the blood vessels in the retina, causing a degradation of vision.
Reduced travel time to save the body
An extended stay in space also entails a loss of calcium in the bones. It is therefore difficult to badess precisely for scientists the effects of a one-year mission on Mars. "We need to start focusing on some key technologies right now," Jones told reporters in Washington.
The solution to save the human body would pbad according to him not a reduced travel time to Mars, notably via nuclear propulsion systems. We must also find a solution to problem of radiation. In one trip to Mars, an astronaut would absorb as much as during his entire career. "We do not yet have the solution in terms of protection of cosmic rays and solar flares," acknowledged Tom Jones.
InSight probe to land on Mars on November 26
But experts have identified several technologies to develop, including the departure of the planet. Waiting to send humans, NASA launched in May a probe, InSight, which will land on Mars on November 26th. The purpose of this $ 993-million mission is to study its internal structure to better understand how the rocky planets of the solar system are formed. Another mission must allow, in 2020, to send a new rover on Mars to determine the livability of the Martian environment and look for signs of ancient life.
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