The man on Mars is not likely to be here by 2030 – says NASA

NASA may not be able to land the first man on the planet Mars by 2030. William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration, has informed that the Organization lacks funds to realize his dream.

He also pointed out another more important problem: they do not know how to land something as big and heavy as a spaceship needed to transport human loads on the Martian surface.

Mars missions have always been very difficult. Until now, there have been 16 attempts at landing spacecraft on Mars; but only seven have succeeded. All these experiments were carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA. The EU's attempt to land on Mars failed in October of last year.

Professor Jack Burns, who is part of the NASA transition team, said that Mar's weather is not suitable for landing at all. It has an atmospheric pressure that represents only 1% of the Earth's atmosphere. This creates a unique set of problems. The atmosphere is thick enough for the spacecraft to need a thick heat shield, but at the same time, it is too thin to be able to brake enough to land using parachutes.

Image Source: NASA JPL

The Rover of the NASA used inflated air cushions to bounce off the surface. The Curiosity Rover uses the most sophisticated landing technique of all time, called "Sky Crane". After the parachutes slowed down the capsule, a special set of rockets was fired to position the sky crane at a height that then put the undercarriage to the surface.

All systems used to successfully land on Mars had a mbad of less than 2 tons. For an inhabited mission, this mbad would be between 10 and 15 tons. From now on, there is no concrete solution available to land as much mbad on the Martian surface safely.

NASA could set up a mission in orbit around Mars before taking the landing mission.

The private company SpaceX is currently testing their Dragon spacecraft to land on Mars by 2020. If it succeeds, it will defeat NASA to land the heaviest object on the surface of Mar. We hope that SpaceX will succeed all its calculations.

Space enthusiasts will be able to take a look at the March 2020 rover that will enhance our knowledge of how to set up survival systems on a distant planet. Another major challenge that needs to be investigated is the ability of the human body to maintain spaceflights for several months.

Source: People's Mechanics