Have you ever thought about when you or anyone might have the chance to go to mars? Well if so then I am going to find you some answers.
SpaceX hopes to have humans on Mars by 2026. They are developing a rocket called “Starship”. Starship will carry both cargo and humans to Mars. NASA is also working on getting people to Mars, their goal is to have people on Mars by 2030.
NASA’s plan
NASA’s goal is to get people on Mars by the 2030s and to safely send astronauts on a two-year journey to Mars and back.
They are developing advanced propulsion systems, inflatable landing gear, high-tech space suits with enhanced mobility, home and lab that is mobile to travel around mars and do experiments, surface power systems, and laser communication system to be able to communicate with earth and send more data at a time. NASA will test many of these technologies on the moon.
Clearly, it is much harder to get people to mars than most think but it is most definitely possible we just need time, but just wait till you see SpaceX’s plan.
SpaceX’s plan
SpaceX is one of the most advanced space exploration companies when it comes to colonizing Mars. In 2017 Musk said that he wanted to land cargo ships on Mars in 2022 and humans in 2024.
Recently he has said his new goal is to land humans on Mars in 2026, but you never know because there is only a small period of time every 26 months that it is possible to send a rocket ship to Mars. If they are not ready when that time comes they would have to wait 26 months before they have the chance to try to send a rocket to Mars.
SpaceX has high hopes now let’s just hope they can achieve them. Now let’s talk about SpaceX’s rocket.
The Rocket
SpaceX calls their rocket “Starship”, an extremely heavy rocketship that is completely reusable. It is meant to carry both humans and cargo and will also be able to orbit the earth, orbit the moon, go to Mars, and beyond.
Once Starship is fully functional it will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever made. Starship will also have the ability to carry over approximately 100 metric tonnes into Earth’s orbit (over 200,000 pounds!).
Starship will also be able to transport satellites farther than ever with a lower marginal cost per launch than any other rockets such as the falcon vehicles.
Starship will also be used to transport cargo and people to the ISS, missions to the moon for research, and interplanetary transport.
SpaceX plans to have a manned mission to the moon in 2023. Which if successful will help us tremendously with research on getting to Mars.
The long ride to get there
According to NASA, the ride to get from earth to mars would take about 7 months and approximately 300 million miles.
Traveling through space will take a big toll on the human body, you will become much weaker because there is no gravity so you don’t use very much muscle.
You also experience much more protection because you no longer have the protection of the earth’s atmosphere.
Three of the biggest radiation sources are particles trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, solar energetic particles from the Sun, and galactic cosmic rays.
It is very hard to reduce the risk of exposure and a lot of radiation exposure can cause a lot of bad health problems such as cancer, and heart disease.
Traveling through space also takes a toll on people’s mental health. When you are in space you don’t get much social interaction, except for the people that you are with. you don’t get a go outside and do stuff as you would on Earth, you are just trapped in a small spaceship. Think of it like being trapped in your room for six months straight.
Space agencies are developing ways to make the trip not as difficult mentally. NASA is developing some technologies to help astronauts sleep better and help them be more alert when they are up. Astronauts also write in journals when they are in space to help them get out their frustrations and anger.
When you are thousands of miles away from Earth it takes a bit of time for communications to go through. If you had a problem and you didn’t know how to fix it you would have to wait anywhere from five to 15 minutes until your transmission will go through to earth and then another 5 to 15 minutes till there’s will come back.
Living on mars
Living on Mars would have plenty of challenges, the hardest part would probably be getting life there sustainable.
We would need to have enough resources there that it is stainable. There would need to be a way to grow food, get enough water, and everything a human would need to survive.
Obviously, if something went wrong a rocket could probably get sent up with stuff that they need. What if rockets were not able to go to Mars for some reason, there might not be enough fuel, or maybe there is a malfunction in the rocket.
There is only a small period of time every two years that a spaceship could take off to go to Mars so if they miss one of those time slots the people on Mars would have to wait another two years. If life on mars is sustainable then that would never be a problem.
There would have to be a pressure vessel, energy, oxygen, some sort of shield from the radiation, and food and water. There will need to be greenhouses on mars so that that there is enough food to eat. Then we will also need to have access to everything on the list above because if we don’t have even one everyone would most likely die. Most likely it would be a long painful death.
Why do we need to get humans on mars?
The main reason that we need to get people on mars is to ensure to future of humankind.
There are plenty of ways that humans could go extinct on earth, a massive asteroid could and wipe out all life, there could be an extremely deadly virus that kills all humans, climate change, a nuclear war, AI, and more.
If we can be a multi-planetary species it will be much harder to wipe out all humans because if something happens that kills all humans on earth we will still have people on mars (if we get humans on Mars) so that our species does not go extinct.