THE FIRST HUMANS ON MARS. THIS IS NO LONGER SCIENCE FICTION – IN THIS CENTURY HUMANS WILL EMBARK ON A JOURNEY TO MARS! THE COUNTDOWN TO THE GREATEST AND MOST DANGEROUS HUMAN UNDERTAKING OF THE 21ST CENTURY HAS ALREADY BEGUN HERE ON EARTH - TO SEND THE FIRST HUMAN MISSIONS TO COLONIZE THE RED PLANET
by Tihomir Dimitrov
Mankind’s permanent presence in space and our search for extra-terrestrial life both start with our first human outposts on Mars and the first human steps on the Red planet
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ASA has already put a firm deadline about when this is going to happen – in the 2030s (2033 – 2039). The private company SpaceX has an even more audacious plan – to send humans to the Martian surface even sooner than that – in 2024.
The adventure to Mars will require new types of rockets, unparalleled inventions, and the next generation of astronauts. It is almost certain that there will be challenges along the way, even casualties, but mankind cannot be stopped from realizing one of its burning dreams – to explore other worlds in the cosmos. Going to Mars will be a two and a half year odyssey that will span over millions of kilometers beyond the cosmic horizon, one that will require sacrifice, boldness and innovation on a scale unheard of today. For the first time in human history we dare to plan putting colonies on Mars and if we want to stay there permanently we will need to terraform the planet. Making Mars Earth-like is a long term goal, of course, and the first steps are to build a permanent presence on its surface. Engineers from around the world are already hard at work on their way to turn the technologies that will enable us to travel to Mars into reality. We have to note, though, that the Mars missions’ aim is to colonize an entirely new planet, in contrast to what our lunar landings were – visiting another world, different from ours (make no mistake – the lunar landings were the greatest feat of the twentieth century). So, buckle up – we are going for a spectacular space adventure to study the difficulties the first humans on Mars will endure. ON OUR WAY TO MARS Traveling from Earth to Mars and back would take around one and a half Earth years. Once at the vicinity of the Red planet, the first human settlers will have only days to decide whether they are coming back to Earth immediately or they will land and stay on the surface for another year and a half before they come back home. This is the way the celestial mechanics between the orbits of Earth and Mars work. The Red planet doesn’t have a big moon like Earth does to “give” it a time-keeping measure of months (although it has two small natural satellites), that’s why we measure the time on Mars in days! One Martian year is equal to 687 days on Earth. We are yet to put a human in space for such a long time. In 1995, Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov lived for 438 days on board the space station Mir, and last year American astronaut Scott Kelly visited the International Space Station for 340 days.
The Neutral Bouyancy Lab in Houston, TX is the largest mock-up facility that serves astronauts as a testing ground for EVA activities
WEIGHTLESSNESS In general, weightlessness has some unfavorable effects on the human body. Observations and studies show that threats such as solar and cosmic radiation increase the life-time risk for cancer. And if water is proved to be an effective isolator from solar radiation, there is still no reliable protection against cosmic radiation (high-speed highdensity rays from other stars).
The Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) will be a real engineering feat that will enable people to travel from the Martian surface to space
Weightlessness in space causes several temporary transformations in the human body. Some of the key body systems relax, people get disoriented for a short time (lasting from several hours to several days) and they lose their ability to define what their limbs’ orientation is. This is caused by the vestibular system not being able to define where the floor and the ceiling are. Space engineers that build spacecraft today take this into account and put all signs inside spacecraft with the same orientation. Some of the longer term unwanted effects of weightlessness are bone and muscle loss, atrophy of the cardio-vascular system, adrenal gland problems, and a change in the pressure inside the eyeball, which causes vision distortion. Every cosmic traveler needs to train on special fitness devices on board the spacecraft for 2 hours per day to keep their muscles in tone, and to eat special dried food which provides the necessary supplements for a healthy organism. Weightlessness has positive effects too. The sensation to fly in space like a spaceman is indescribable! We are also fortunate to have a digestive system that is able to function without complications in space and “knows� up and down. Here is the time to mention, also, that going to the toilet in weightlessness is a process that needs practice and concentration.
The Martian colony will have habitat modules, powered by sunlight collectors, inflatable expansion modules, science labs, rovers, workshops and underground premises BELOW SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster is making a controlled landing back on a drone ship at sea; a huge milestone towards rapid rocket reusability - mankind’s cheaper ticket to space
THE HUMAN FACTOR Living in a closed space on their way to Mars, far from friends and relatives, far from the pleasure of the hot shower, far from the walk in the park and the breath of fresh Earth air, as well as the constant strain from unpredictable critical situations, could negatively affect the psyche of the first Martian settlers. Will a crew of six people be able to live in closed premises as big as an apartment for two and a half years? Astronauts who visited the Mir space station have witnessed some of their colleagues developing serious mental problems. Following the initial euphoria, the trip to Mars is likely be filled with monotony and long days of science experiments, physical exercises, eating and sleeping. Communication with Earth will not be in real time. The time for the signal from the spacecraft to reach Earth will take up to 45 minutes, and rescue and delivery services will be millions of kilometers away! To avoid conflict, each crew member must be patient, helpful and competent in several different fields. Astronauts would need to be familiar and be able to work with the different technologies on board the spacecraft. It is worth mentioning that the crew will most probably be men and women. NASA’s position about sex in space is that it is OK as long as it doesn’t interfere with the normal flow of mission objectives.
THE SPACESHIPS Mars, at its nearest point, is about 56 million kilometers away from Earth. Sending a crew of six, with all the necessary food and water supplies, would be the greatest engineering feat ever achieved. Let’s not forget that there are no supermarkets and spare parts shops on the Martian surface. The supplies that would be necessary just for the first human mission to Mars are around 11 tons of water, 20 tons of food and overall supplies of more than 500 tons! We are yet to move something that big to Mars; we need big rockets and giant spaceships. If we ever want to travel to Mars, we need to build the space architecture that will make our access to space relatively inexpensive. There are already concrete steps that have been taken thus far in this direction – SpaceX has already shown to the world that they can land their rockets back on Earth and this way they are about to reuse them, saving up to 30% of the cost to orbit. The private company is currently developing their largest rocket to date. It will be able to deliver 54 tons to Earth orbit and more than 13 tons of cargo directly to Mars. The company has plans to build and deploy a huge Mars Colonial Transporter that will be a regular, reliable means of transportation to the Red planet. It will be able to transport 100 people at once in the time frame of only 3 months! NASA, for their part, are developing their biggest rocket, bigger than the Saturn V that carried American astronauts during the Apollo missions to the surface of the Moon.
Mars is Earth’s twice smaller inhospitable brother
TEST OF THE HUMAN LIMITS Mars is a planet unbelievably inhospitable, dark, unbearably cold, filled with dust storms, and scarred with craters and canyons. It is a planet of death! Somebody may ask, in this case, why do we want to go there? Despite the ruthless Martian environment, the Red planet has many similarities with Earth and, in fact, it is the only place in our Solar system (apart from the Moon) where we can exist (in the near future, at least). The sun on Mars rises from the East and the day is only 40 minutes longer than on Earth. A man would weigh only 38% of what he weighs here on Earth. The Martian atmosphere is composed primarily of carbon dioxide (CO2) – a gas that has fatal consequences if inhaled by humans. It is also very thin – with a density only 1% of what the Earth’s atmosphere is and this forces the use of spacesuits. Mars is exposed to enormous temperature amplitudes – the average surface temperature is -63 degrees Celsius! And if during the summer at noon on the equator it rises up to 25 degrees, the same places during the night bathe in an unspeakably cold -100 degrees Celsius – a certain hell not only for unprotected humans but also for all the technology that will help build the future Martian bases. The surface is also filled with raging storms that fan monstrous dust devils.
Orbital assembly will enable the construction of large spaceships and the transportation of large amounts of people and cargo to the Red planet
SpaceX crewed Dragon capsule is capable of transporting 7 astronauts. It has a retro propulsion landing system that enable precision landings and take-offs
The Orion capsule is NASA’s transportation system that will bring astronauts to different places in our Solar system
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity’s twin in JPL, California. MSL provides us with science data on the surface of Mars that helps us learn more anout the Red planet’s history
These storms create temporary electric fields in the atmosphere and make the surface inaccessible. The first human-rated Martian spacecraft that will land on the surface will weigh from 10 to 60 tons and it is unthinkable to land a spacecraft like this on Mars during a dust storm! We are also yet to invent the technology that will put a spacecraft with such dimensions in orbit around Mars and land people on the surface. There is also no human-rated rocket and spacecraft in existence that will launch and send people to Mars. Coming back home is even more challenging; we don’t have launch pads on the surface of Mars. We are yet to create the spacecraft that will launch people from the Red planet.
WHERE ON THE SURFACE OF MARS?
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION The spacecraft carrying the first Martian settlers will be built in Earth orbit the same way spacefaring nations built the International Space Station over the last 16 years; an orbiting human outpost. The research that we do on the ISS today prepares us for our future on Mars. The ISS is an orbital hub where we develop the next space materials, spacesuits, and faster means of communication in space, as well as solutions for how to live and work productively together, in cooperation with robots. The first human settlers traveling to Mars will need to live in very tight living quarters both on their way to the Red planet and on its deserted and cold surface
The topic of the day, today, is also to choose a location on the Martian surface for the first Martian colony. This must be a place that is easy to reach from Mars orbit, easy to land at, and a place that gives an opportunity to do scientific and exploratory activities on the surface. Usually these are places where it is already proven that there has been flowing water in the distant past! Right now, our spacecraft landing precision is on the scale of 10s of kilometers on Mars. Our best achievement was in 2012 when the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity landed in a landing ellipse of 20 by 7 km on the surface of Mars. If we ever want to build a Martian base we need to improve our precision landings to the scale of meters! THE FIRST DAY ON MARS AND HOW ARE WE GOING TO BUILD A COLONY THERE After long months of monotonous life on their way to the Red planet, the crew will suddenly need to switch to a very stressful regime before and during the landing phase on the Martian surface. During entry the spacecraft will basically burn a “hole” in the Martian sky with its enormous speed (21,000 km/h), ionizing the atmosphere around it. The atmosphere will constantly look for ways to breach the integrity of the spacecraft, trying to reduce it to ashes. This ferocious battle lasts for around seven minutes! At the moment NASA is developing the heat-shields and construction material that will enable the first Martian settlers to land safely on the surface of the Red planet. We won’t have to wait long for this to happen. There will be a day, in about 10 - 15 years, when people will hold their breath while waiting for the first signals from the Red planet to arrive to Earth, carrying the message that the first settlers have landed on the Martian surface, opened the hatch and made the first step a human has ever made on another planet – the greatest scientific and engineering feat in the history of mankind! Months in advance, cargo ships would have brought provisions, rovers, power generators and living quarters to the place designated for the first Martian habitat. This will be the only place on the surface of the Red planet where the settlers will be able to live. With time they will learn how to survive on their own, without relying on the supplies from Earth. They will find ways to produce their air, food and water and the fuel they need to drive around the surface. NASA is developing these technologies today on board the ISS and inside the Mars rovers that roam on the Martian surface. There will be a scientific experiment producing fuel and oxygen from the carbon dioxide that is in the Martian atmosphere on board the next Mars rover that will land on the surface of the Red planet in 2020.
Scientist and engineers must choose wisely the location of the first human Martian outpost. A good location will enable easy access as well as proper scientific exploration
THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE Colonizing Mars is a dangerous and expensive endeavor. Some people may ask, then, why do we want to do it? Aren’t we better off spending the billions of dollars on pressing matters here on Earth? Well, it is in our human nature to be natural explorers who conquer new territories, to broaden our horizons, to challenge ourselves, and to invent new ways to live better and soar to new heights. Life has to be more than just dealing with daily problems. Mankind goes forward, stimulated by our aspirations for adventure and our desire to peek beyond the horizon. The first human missions to Mars may answer some of the most exciting questions a man has ever asked; are we alone in the Universe? Was there ever life on Mars and is there life there today? The answers to these questions will change us forever. In hundreds, thousands of years into the future, the 21st century will remain in the history books with the most extraordinary feat achieved by man – to step on another planet! Our grandchildren will look back at Earth, humanity’s cradle, curious to learn that our exploration of the Universe began with our first human steps on Mars.
LUNAR BASE It is also worth exploring the option to build a lunar base as an intermediate step on our way to the Red planet. On the lunar surface we will be able to train for the upcoming missions to Mars and at the same time to enjoy the relative proximity to Earth in case of an emergency or calamity.
Growing its own food is key for a sustainable human colony on Mars. Plants require proper light, temperature, air and pressure, moisture, water and fertilizers to give nutrients. Providing all of these on the surface of a deserted planet is a real engineering challenge
This article was published in the Bulgarian magazine BBC Knowledge - Issue 79