Upcoming space missions to Mars have attracted the lion’s share of the attention of media headlines in recent years, but before to visit the Red planet requires a lot more research. And that is why the space Agency NASA announced plans for sending astronauts on a journey around the moon.
The last time mankind landed on the moon in 1972. However, NASA believes that Dolynych (i.e. between the earth and the Moon) orbit can be a great place to create a launch pad for launching missions to Mars in 2030-ies.
Greg Williams, Deputy assistant head of a Department of policy and planning at NASA, speaking this week at the Summit of human flight to Mars, said that the Agency for the 2027 scheduled mission to the moon. To our satellite will send a crew of astronauts, who will orbit the moon for a year.
Such a long stay in lunar orbit is caused by the need for at least 5 additional missions. Some of them will be manned, some self-contained. Within these flights will deliver all necessary equipment to the orbit of the satellite. In a list of this equipment is included as residential orbital station for future Mars crews and the spacecraft Deep Space Transport, the development of which is already underway. In the future, NASA wants to use it to fly to Mars.
“If we can hold the annual manned mission using the Deep Space Transport apparatus, which will be on Dolynych orbit, we can thoroughly investigate the possibility of sending this thing with people on Board in tysyacheletie journey to Mars and back,” says Williams.
Now in this lunar mission is not even official names. Initially, however, on the sidelines of NASA used the term “trial cruise.” Usually, it is used in the Navy, during inspections of new ships.
Previously, NASA had already announced that it intends to build a lunar orbital station Deep Space Gateway and use it as a launch pad for launching missions into deep space, including missions to Mars. To do this, the Agency wants to use the most powerful booster in the world — the Space Launch System (SLS) – which will be the delivery of the necessary equipment. The first launch is planned in the next year.
All of this equipment, according to Williams, is still being developed, so more details about how the astronauts will spend 365 days on the moon’s orbit, yet. However, all that will be able to learn during this mission, can be very useful when flying to Mars.
Note that scientists continue to understand the issues, what consequences can people expect if long space flights. Recent studies have shown that even a short flight outside the Earth’s atmosphere can lead to liver disease in mice. In addition, after a 340-day stay of an American astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the ISS NASA discovered he had some vision problems, bone density, muscles, and also sleep disorder. In General, there remains a lot of work before tysyacheletia trip to Mars will be safe.
It is also worth noting that NASA is looking for support from private companies. In the preparation and implementation of manned flight can help companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.
“We are open for cooperation in matters of travel to Mars. One of the things we will do in the next few years will be to combine all ideas and solutions,” added Williams.
“Now the key goal is finding how to work together, under the leadership of NASA, we will actually be able to approach these manned missions to Mars,” summed up Williams.
Before the flight to Mars, NASA will hold the annual manned mission to the moon
Nikolai Khizhnyak