Mars Mission: In Search of the Man on the Red Planet



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One day in the future, parents could nudge their children and say, "Pack your bags. We are going on Mars. For humans, interplanetary exploration has always been a challenge and a quest for dreams. The dreams came true when Neil Armstrong and his crew of Apollo 11 landed on the Moon at 20:17 UTC July 20, 1969. The landing of the Apollo 11 and the first march on the moon by the mission commander Neil Armstrong (referred to as landing on Moon) and Buzz Aldrin pilot remains historic and has allowed more people to dream of setting foot on an extraterrestrial planet.

After the Moon, the space brotherhood has set its sights on Mars. The difference between landing on the moon and landing on Mars would be that we will not come back. The red planet is widely regarded as a permanent human settlement and not a temporary destination where humans land, wander into space and return home. The new season of March, which starts at 9 pm today on National Geographic, examines the humans who colonize Mars and the coexistence that announces itself difficult.

Space has always been a highly guarded arena and the achievement of missions on other planets has been limited to space agencies such as NASA and ESA. However, the entry of new private actors in the last decade has created new opportunities. If Apollo 11 is the jewel of NASA's mission, sending human beings into space will be the jewel of space missions conducted by private companies.

Watch: First look at the season 2 of March

The fascination of humanity for space

Needless to say, we humans have always been fascinated by the word "SPACE". The first glimpse of this can be seen in a remote village, where a grandmother can be seen feeding a small child by showing her the moon. The moon is not just an abstract object here, but it is a transition that the child can imagine about it is supposed to induce a sense of curiosity in the young child, who could become such a child, who poses the feet on the moon.

Before talking about space and the human fascination associated with it, we must understand the definition of space. The space, simply called space, is the expanse that exists beyond the Earth and between the celestial bodies. It's this fascination with the space that led to the Apollo 8 mission, which gave us a glimpse of the Earth from the outer orbit and portrays Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Kalpana Chawla and Scott Kelly, among others, as heroes.

Nasa tests InSight Mars Lander solar panels (Source: NASA)

Conquer and survive on Mars

The colonization of Mars in the near future is explained by many reasons. The most plausible reason seems to be related to the Earth itself. As we all know, 70% of the Earth is water and it is possible that the land mass will decrease further due to climate change. In such a scenario, the pressure on the Earth to accommodate humans will only become difficult. The second reason is that Mars has turned out to be the most habitable planet in our solar system after Earth.

It has water to extract and is neither too hot nor too cold for human survival. Like Earth, gravity on Mars is 38% and its atmosphere can protect us from cosmic rays and solar radiation. It gets enough sun to use solar panels as a source of electricity and its 24-hour, 39-minute, and 35-second day / night rhythm is closer to what we have on Earth.

Source: NASA

While the reasons for turning Mars into a second human colony are clear and the way to land on Mars has also been taken care of, the biggest question will be how to survive it. The average temperature on Mars is well below freezing and weather conditions are generally considered extreme. According to NASA, the temperature difference between Monday and Tuesday could be as bad as 170 degrees. One of the most important conditions for survival would be to wear a spacesuit at all times. Humans will be forced to prepare for dust storms and the first humans to land there will have to adapt to a different climate.

"The people who go there are true pioneers," said NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green. United States Today & # 39; hui. Green says the first humans on Mars would need to grow and establish a food source. These early humans will also have to build homes while scientists believe that beans, asparagus and potatoes are viable crops for soils. It also gives private businesses the opportunity to create a habitat there.

"Mars will not be fair to scientists and dreamers, people would be there to make a profit," said Andy Weir, author of The Martian book. "If there is money to be won on Mars, people will go there to make money," he added.

A 2-inch deep hole produced using a new drilling technique for NASA's Curiosity mobile (Source: NASA)

The transition from science fiction to reality

The first humans who go to Mars may not go with a one-way ticket. Instead, it may well be that few astronauts land on Mars, understanding the physics of human survival and returning to bring more people with them. If this attempt succeeds, we could then have several missions from different companies and space agencies around the world, sending humans to Mars. The first humans to land on Mars could well be billionaires and millionaires who want to flee the Earth.

Just like air travel, for most people on the planet, space tourism will be more than affordable at the start. However, the number of people who can reserve space in a space vehicle will be more and more important. At first it sounded like "vaporware", but it becomes a real thing at a very fast pace. It will take between six and eight months for humans to land on Mars, depending on the orbit of entry and launch time. Once there, life would not only be difficult but rewarding for future generations. We could see the first humans land on Mars as early as next year, but the real colonization will only begin in 2024. Yes, these scenes from the 2016 Passengers movie will become reality and we can only hope that your hibernation module does not miss in the middle. travel.

Elon Musk talks about the colonization of Mars (Source: Getty)

Private companies that make it a reality

Today, there is talk of going on Mars like going on a European tour, because of the rise of these new entrepreneurs in the space. Elon Musk is the strongest advocate for sending human beings into space. The co-founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has a direct interest in the human mission on the red planet.

A few years ago, if someone had told you about the idea of ​​sending a rocket into outer orbit and then retrieving it using re-entry fuel combustion, you'd have laughed at that idea. Today, rocket recovery has become a norm and all credits go to SpaceX and Elon Musk. Musk considered the idea of ​​recovering rockets, which would reduce the costs of entry into space, very early in his life. His memoirs perfectly describe Musk's fascination with space and he imagined a time when missions would be conducted in such a way that rockets would be recovered and reused for another mission.

After several unsuccessful attempts and on the verge of bankruptcy, SpaceX has made a point of recovering its rockets. In doing so, the company has successfully sent several missions into outer orbit with the help of a reused rocket. This very idea also paves the way for sending human beings into space, who will travel aboard a space capsule called BFR.

BFR is a reusable two-stage space launcher (Source: SpaceX)

SpaceX designs BFR as a fully reusable vehicle and is intended to serve a variety of industries, including satellite deployment, space station missions and interplanetary transportation. The BFR, which will eventually replace the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy and the Dragon, consists of two stages: a booster and a ship. The ship is supposed to drop humans on the surface of Mars, while the booster must be recovered for future missions.

Elon Musk and his SpaceX dominate the private space business, but many players remain underrated in their messages and could be very advanced in their projects. One of these names is Blue Origin, a private sector startup founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos is the richest person in the world, and as of November 17, 2018, Bloomberg estimated its value at $ 132 billion.

In recent years, Bezos has sold its shares in its e-commerce company, Amazon.com Inc., to fund Blue Origin. In its vision statement, Blue Origin envisions millions of people living and working in space. The company, like SpaceX, will use reusable rockets and has two vehicles – New Shepard and New Glenn. New Shepard is the vehicle that will send humans into space while New Glenn is able to bring humans and payloads into low Earth orbits and beyond.

While SpaceX wants to send humans to Mars and help them colonize the red planet, Blue Origin wants to start by creating space tourism. He envisions that people making a huge check fly to low Earth orbits and see the land from above, click on selfies and then come back as a starting point. Although most of the analysts and observers in the space have been secretive for the most part, they think the company is way ahead of its space exploration project.

Virgin Galactic, a space flight company belonging to British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group, is another big name in the private space race. He also sees space as a tourism opportunity and develops launch vehicles capable of sending and bringing people back into space. Virgin Galactic is distinguished by the fact that its suborbital spacecraft called SpaceShipTwo is launched in the air under a carrier plane. The thrill of slowing down and then entering the upper orbit with extra rockets will be worth the money.

SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are the key names in the private space race, but there are smaller companies such as XCOR Aerospace, Stratolaunch Systems, Sierra Nevada Corporation, United Launch Alliance, Arianespace to name a few. -unes. All these companies have a unified mission: to transport human beings to outer orbit and, ultimately, to create a human habitat on Mars.

Artistic representation of Mars Ice Home concept (Source: NASA)

What the future sees

As human beings, we all like the idea of ​​traveling, but the future will be the one in which we will travel in space. On a nice Saturday morning, the idea of ​​traveling solo does not have to come from an airport near you. You could very well expect a space flight from a launch pad. It would be revolutionary for many reasons, because humans would collect data and create a new lifestyle from scratch.


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