NASA Plans to Get to Mars in Next 25 Years

Space agency NASA believes that in the next 25 years, it would able to overcome the technological, geographical, scientific and medical hurdles to make planet Mars ready for inhibition by human beings for the first time.

The risk of living on the Red planet includes emission of deadly radiation from the cosmos, potential vision loss and atrophying bones. These are the challenges, which the scientists must overcome in order to make it accessible for any future astronaut or human being.

Former NASA astronaut Tom Jones says, “The cost of solving those means that under current budgets, or slightly expanded budgets, it’s going to take about 25 years to solve those. We need to get started now on certain key technologies” said the former astronaut, who flew on four space shuttle missions before retiring in 2001.

Mars is located at an average distance of about 140 million miles or 225 million kilometers from the earth. The planet possesses scientific problems, like the order of magnitude, which is greater than anything encountered by the Apollo lunar missions.

Present rocket technology if used, would take an astronaut up to nine months to reach Mars and it can take a heavy toll on the astronaut as well as the spacecraft, for floating that long in zero gravity. As scientists believe that prolonged weightlessness can cause irreversible changes to blood vessels in the retina, leading to vision degradation and in zero-G, the skeleton starts to leach the calcium and bone mass. The gravity of Mars is one third in comparison to Earth. Scientists also don’t know the effects of a presumed one-year mission to the surface of Mars.

The Aerospace experts have identified several new technologies, which needs rapid and immediate development. These include developing a technology, which can help the spacecraft to survive the harsh entry into Mars and land softly on the surface of Mars. Secondly, the spacecraft must have the ability to lift people off the surface and return back to Earth safely, after successful completion of the mission.

Presently NASA has a new robotic lander known as InSight, which is zooming towards Mars and due to land on November 26. It took off from California on May 5th this year. NASA has invested $993 million on the project, which aims at expanding human knowledge about the interior conditions on Mars and it can also help the experts understand the geography of the planet, which along with the Earth, is formed billions of years ago.