We’re Getting Humans to Mars

 

there are many troubles in the world of  course and we these are important and we  need to solve them  but we also need things that make us  excited to be alive that make us  glad to wake up in the morning space  exploration is one of those things  the red planet has always been a lofty  ambition a far-off conquest  something we'd get to 20 or 30 years  down the track  however recently plans have accelerated  maybe it's because technology finally  caught up to meet the logistical  challenge of a man flight to mars  or maybe an impending climate change  crisis has nudged humanity to look to  the stars for another home  whatever the reason national space  programs and private companies  are close to putting a real timeline on  sending the first humans to mars  today we're headed straight to the third  rock from the sun  in how we'll get humans to mars  home sweet home over thousands of years  humans have  evolved in such a way that we can easily  survive and thrive  in the conditions that are found on  earth with average temperatures of 57  degrees fahrenheit  an abundance of liquid water and a thick  oxygen-rich atmosphere that shields the  planet from solar radiation  earth has been a pristine place for life  to flourish  and then we have mars by comparison  mars is an inhospitable hellscape that  would struggle to support life  for any reasonable amount of time the  thin atmosphere of mars puts up no  resistance to the damaging solar  radiation  which constantly bombards the martian  soil  speaking of the soil it's full of toxic  perchlorate compounds which would make  any attempt to grow  plant life completely futile while the  conditions on mars are far from perfect  they can be dealt with  through select terraforming processes  but  before we even think of how we're going  to survive on the surface  we first need to figure out how we're  going to get to our distant  planetary neighbor how to blast off  to cross the great expense of space that  separates earth from mars  we will need to use a very powerful  rocket that is capable of carrying  enough cargo to start a small human  settlement and shelter a group of  astronauts  modern day rockets include numerous key  components including one or more engines  propellants a propellant tank and nozzle  rocket engines work by producing a jet  of high velocity particles in a single  direction  most jet propulsion rocket engines are  based on combustion  which involves the addition of an  oxidizer to the fuel or  propellant in a reaction chamber this  generates a massive amount of hot  highly pressurized gas which is then  focused into a jet of particles  forced through the nozzle at the bottom  of the rocket  the thrust needs to be sufficient enough  to overcome the gravitational force of  the earth  moving into orbit and beyond once we've  gathered our  internal rocket components we'll need to  figure out how to construct the outer  shell of the rocket  putting things into space uses a lot of  energy  if we want to maximize the amount of  stuff we can put into space  the rocket being used for transport will  need to be as light  and as aerodynamic as possible to reduce  the energy required for both liftoff and  the subsequent journey outwards  we also need to ensure that the rocket  is made of a material that is able to  withstand the extreme pressure and  temperatures  associated with blasting off  the shape of the first rocket used to  get to mars will likely resemble rockets  that we've been  using for years a narrow cylinder with a  pointed top  this shape minimizes the amount of air  that the rocket comes into contact with  lowering air resistance and allowing it  to reach orbit with a lower energy  production  meaning less fuel on the topic of the  material used for the outer shell of the  rocket  there are a few potential candidates  carbon fiber is a great candidate for  the exterior of a rocket  due to its high strength which is more  than five times that of steel  and it's slow weight that is perfect for  an energy efficient takeoff  the main issues with carbon fiber are  its high cost at between 30  and 80 dollars per pound and its  tendency to expand at temperatures of  400 degrees fahrenheit and above  which could lead to catastrophic failure  when crossing the atmosphere  the issue of temperature could be  negated using heat proof tiles  such as those found on the international  space station but this would add more  unnecessary weight to the rocket  and can make takeoff more difficult  another material that could be used for  the exterior of the rocket  is stainless steel this material is  weaker and heavier than carbon fiber  however it is also much cheaper and  resistant to high temperatures  with issues only beginning to arise in  excess of 1500 degrees fahrenheit  it is for these reasons that elon musk  announced he would be constructing his  mars rocket  the starship using stainless steel our  best bet for getting humans to mars at  this point  is with the use of a rocket with a  stainless steel exterior  if we want to maximize the amount of  people and cargo we can get to mars  we might want to think about using a  multi-stage rocket  these are essentially multiple small  rockets that are strapped to a main  rocket  where each separate rocket has its own  engine and fuel  the smaller rockets are only used as  boosters and don't contain any cargo  at liftoff the main rocket heading to  mars will not engage its engines  instead the smaller boosters that are  strapped to the rocket will be  responsible for getting the craft off  the ground  as these boosters run out of fuel they  will detach from the main rocket  and fall back to earth this decreases  the mass of the main rocket which will  now engage its engines and continue its  journey to mars  a multi-stage rocket is able to increase  the distance that can be traversed by  the primary rocket  by generating thrust and speed using  boosters that can later detach  so they don't weigh down the rocket this  will make transporting a large amount of  cargo to mars  significantly easier  now that we've finished constructing our  rocket it's time to figure out when to  leave and the route we'll be taking  when to blast off the earth and mars  orbit the sun  in the same direction but at different  speeds with mars taking 687 days to  orbit  compared to earth's 365 days  because of this the planets are only  relatively close neighbors  once every 780 days this means there is  a small launch window once every two  years in order to take advantage of the  shorter distance between the two planets  a shorter trip means less fuel is  required which frees up space and weight  for extra cargo in people  mars and earth were last closest to each  other in october of 2020  and as a result of this nasa the chinese  space agency and the united arab  emirates space agency  all launched mars rovers in 2020 which  are all expected to arrive in february  of 2021  the next time earth and mars will be at  the closest point to each other  is in december of 2022 followed by  january of 2025  meaning that these would be the next  best times to launch a manned mission to  mars  where to blast off to once we have our  rocket full of people and equipment  and the two planets are close enough to  each other we can just aim for mars and  blast off right  not exactly if we aim for the location  of mars at launch  our rocket would be heading for the  place where mars used to be  aka empty space if we want to  successfully get  to the red planet we'll need to aim at  where mars will be  after the rocket has taken the time to  travel there  the trip is around six months so we'll  need to aim at the location where mars  will be  in half a year from launch thankfully  this isn't too difficult to do since  mars has a very consistent and stable  orbit  once our rocket has launched toward its  destination it may require  a few stabilizing thrusts to make sure  it follows the correct trajectory  since even a small change in direction  could mean missing the planet entirely  and heading off into the cosmos not  exactly ideal for our first space  adventure beyond the moon  by constructing a powerful rocket and  launching it at the right time towards  the right place  we will be able to successfully get  humans to mars  and finally become an interplanetary  species  when mars won a small private dutch  organization  announced in 2012 that they would have  men on mars by 2025  through an ambitious publicly funded  one-way trip to the red planet  the concept was called a poorly  researched suicide mission by scientists  and the company announced bankruptcy in  2019  despite screening over 200 000 potential  volunteer astronauts  since then spacex has confidently  announced they will have the first human  feed on mars by 2026  a claim we're much more inclined to  believe given the company's recent  successes and breakthrough technologies  other national space programs are more  measured in their announcements  with nasa the china national space  administration  and the european space agency all aiming  for  2030 and beyond whenever we do finally  get humans on the surface of the red  planet  it will be a game changer for sure