Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Nadeem Gabbani on 22/11/2019 14:58:43
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James Lee asks:
Is it possible for people to travel to Mars?
Discuss!
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Is it possible for people to travel to Mars?
Yes, Elon Musk sent a human-sized dummy in a spacesuit (and a Tesla car) on an orbit that takes it well beyond the orbit of Mars.
- He could have sent it on an orbit which intersects with Mars.
- This was launched with a chemical rocket
However, if it were a human in the spacesuit, a human would not have lasted more than a day of a journey that is at least 9 months.
- Even with food, water and shelter for a journey of this duration, the human would not have survived the encounter with Mars
- you need a lot of rocket power to slow down the spacecraft for a soft landing
- And even more food, water and shelter to survive on Mars until more supplies can arrive.
- That is before dealing with things like long-term exposure to cosmic rays and zero-gravity.
With suitable planning and preparatory/follow-up missions, it is possible to safely send someone to Mars - and even return them (as the movie "The Martian" portrayed).
But to do it repeatedly and safely, we really need a more effective propulsions system than chemical rockets.
- The best we have at present is ion propulsion, but this requires lots of power, and isn't really much faster for a trip to Mars.
- The ideal would be a fusion drive, but we can't even build one on Earth, let alone one small enough to fit into a spacecraft.
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Some astronauts have stayed in orbit for more than 9 months, so radiation and zero-g tolerance are not limiting factors. Soft landing may be limiting, but resupply (or preferably, presupply) doesn't require a human-survivable descent. The return journey is unnecessary - the Mayflower was a one-way trip that turned into quite a success.
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Why not? Moon was a dream and became a reality. So maybe one day...