How long will it be before we put a man / woman on Mars?

Question

Simple question, please let me know what you think.

Answer 1

NASA's current goal established by President Bush is by the year 2030.

However, there are lots of things to accomplish in order for that to be made a reality. The largest obstacle is money. Right now NASA's budget is $16.1 Billion. Comparing it to other government programs, like Welfare at $45 Billion, it's clearly not a high priority. And for historical reference, the budget for NASA during Apollo was 4% of the National budget. Today it is 0.0167%. And going to Mars is considerably more difficult than going to the moon.

Moon vs. Mars. For one, the obvious difference is distance. The moon is 240,000 miles away. Mars is about 50,000,000 miles away from us at the closest approach. The problem with distance is the time that it takes. The more time it takes the more stuff you need to take with you. A trip to the moon takes about 3 days. A trip to Mars with conventional rockets takes about 6 months (one way).

Aside from the massive amount of supplies you need to take for a long trip, there is the issue of radiation. The Moon missions are shorter in duration and the Earth provides a bit of protection for a significant portion of the flight by using it's magnetosphere to push away some of the radiation. But on your way to Mars there is no such natural protection. So we need to find a way to protect ourselves from that.

Lastly, I think communication is a big issue. Going to the moon, the delay for a signal going there and back is about 1.5 seconds. So while it's a little annoying if you are trying to have a real time conversation, it certainly isn't problematic. But going to Mars, at it's closest approach, it's about 6 minutes (one way). So to say Hi and reply with Hello, would take about 12 minutes. When Mars is opposite Earth, it's about 24 minutes one way. So saying hi and bye would take about 48 minutes. That can be problematic if a ground controller needs to tell an astronaut something about a loss of oxygen, or a valve that needs to be adjusted, etc...

Fortunately, there are some solutions for all of these problems. But they need to be built and tested. That costs money. And right now, the U.S. has spent close to $500 billion on a war (Whether you are for or against it, it's $500 billion that is gone). And it's really up to ourselves and the government we elect to determine what we need or want to do. Back to science...

The solutions that I find most promising for a mission to Mars include VASMIR, magnetic shielding, promethyus and Quantum Communication.

VASMIR is a plasma rocket (very similar to an Ion rocket). It creates plasma (very hot gas) and squirts it out using magnets to control the stream of plasma. The more electricity you pump into the magnet, the faster you can go. The plasma can be made from several different gases, and hydrogen is one of those gases. Hydrogen is coincidently a good insulator against radiation. So the gas tanks could surround the ship and add a layer of protection. With enough electricity, the inventor, Dr. Frank Chiang Diaz has told me that we can sustain 1 G of constant thrust (making the trip to Mars MUCH shorter - 22 days). However the current plan using less electricity would require about 3 and a half months. Still considerably shorter than conventional rockets.

Magnetic shielding is a means of creating a magnetic field around the space craft that is strong enough to deflect the radiation. Using electric magnets, the shape of the field can be shaped and not only protect the occupants, but also act like a solar sail, helping push along the space craft.

Promethyus is a project that's been put on hold at NASA because of lack of funding. But essentially it's nuclear reactors in space. Nuclear reactors are the most effiencient means of generating huge amounts of electricity. The electricity is needed to run VASMIR and the shield (as well as life support systems and science equipment).

Lastly, Quantum communication. Using a phenomenon called "entanglement", it's possible to create a pair of atoms that are linked such that what happens to one atom, the other will experience the same and more importantly at the exact same time, regardless of how far apart they are. Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance". This is a means of bypassing the speed of light so to speak. By sending the astronauts with one of the entangled sets, the device could relay information instantaneously back and forth to Earth. It doesn't require a "line of sight" either, so we wouldn't need to use the Deep Space Network of radio telescopes, except as a contengency. This technology would also drastically change the capabilities of computation within computers.

If you want more details, feel free to write me.

Answer 2

My guess is that it will probably not be for about another 50 years. But that could change dramatically if we suddenly discovered a good reason to go there. If a country with sufficient resources made going to Mars top priority, it could happen in probably 3 to 5 years.


Doug

Answer 3

Not in my lifetime, one of the big problems would be solar radiation, the Earth's atmosphere protects us from radiation coming from the Sun, travelling to Mars would entail the ship being bombarded by stellar raiation, so would need a very thick lead body to protect the crew, or some other technological breakthrough.

Answer 4

I would say unlikely the time it would take to get there and back and the amount of rocket fuel and food you would require seems with current technology never, If you went there it would probably be a one way mission

Answer 5

Not in the foreseeable future because it is too expensive & pointless.

I think we will send hundreds more robots to Mars before we send humans.

Answer 6

If anything, we must keep the Pope off Mars.

Answer 7

in a couple of years.................................. i think
cuz they put space crafts on mars so it may be soon that we are discovering ALEINS were all doomed

Answer 8

I have one every day.