Although that is still years away, humanity is already planning how Available on Tuesday.
However, there are many technical hurdles to overcome, which is why space agencies led by the US and China want to be the first to land on the moon, a much closer objective. The eventual journey to the Red Planet.
In addition to serving as the first extraterrestrial environment in which humans could live for a long time, the Moon's value lies in the large amounts of frozen water at the south pole that the satellite houses. This can provide snow Oxygen to breathe, Flammable For rockets (thanks to hydrogen) and Aqua For astronauts.
“So it's worth going to the moon. But Mars also has ice, so you can use what you learn on the moon to expand and apply there,” he explains.
Straight up
However, many challenges arise in the transition Dream of the Moon on Mars. The first is distance: “The Moon is three days away and it's relatively easy to get there, but Mars is the bigger limit because it takes a year to do so,” says the astronomer.
This long duration of travel is unexplored territory, as “how a human could survive such a long journey in deep space” is still unknown. More specifically, a stay on the International Space Station lasts an average of six months, so little information is available. How it affects the human bodyPhysically and psychologically, a year in space.
In this sense, there are three obstacles that a journey faces: Zero gravity, radiation and blockage.
Zero gravity means muscles don't need to work as hard as they do on Earth, which weakens and deteriorates over time. In addition, it makes the heart and lungs unable to pump oxygen efficiently throughout the body, and bone density decreases by more than one percent per month, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. On the mental level, the Mars500 experiment in 2010 caused insomnia and sleep disorders in six men isolated in a windowless room for 520 days.
As for radiation, it's the only way to protect astronauts from it on the long journey to Mars A huge spaceship Or use more efficient shielding materials, making launches more expensive and difficult.
On the other hand, there is no way to install Direct communication As astronauts travel beyond the moon, NASA's laser communications system will allow astronauts to stay in touch with people on Earth while transmitting data.
The company is currently developing several technologies Overcome all these obstacles.
