Men could soon walk March . This dream could become reality in two decades, according to the experts Nasa and the private sector. A three-day conference is totally dedicated to this crazy project. It will be held from Monday to Washington in the presence of some of the greatest experts on the subject as Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, and Charles Bolden, director of NASA.
The renewed interest in the Red Planet has led in recent months several more or less serious adventurers projects. One of them even suggested one way to reduce costs. The American public also seems very favorable to sending astronauts to Mars, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit group Explore Mars and aerospace giant Boeing. 75% of Americans are in favor of doubling the annual budget of NASA, currently $ 17 billion to fund such a mission. The space agency receives only 0.5% compared to 4% of the federal budget during the Ap ollo project of conquest of the moon in the 1960s.
crisis Budget delays the project
The head of NASA, Charles Bolden, recently reiterated that “a manned mission to Mars is a priority for NASA.” The biggest obstacle to such a project is the fiscal crisis in the United States, said Scott Hubbard, professor at Stanford University in California and former head of the Mars exploration program at NASA.
“If this project is launched today, it would be possible to put men on Mars in 20 years,” he told AFP. “Going to Mars requires no miracles but money and a program to meet the technological challenges and engineering,” said the expert without giving a cost estimate that some amount to hundreds of billions of dollars.
The exposed to cosmic radiation
crew
Scott Hubbard believes that a nuclear engine, yet to be developed, would reduce half the l ength of the journey of six to nine months. The distance between Earth and Mars varies from 56 to 400 million km depending on the position of the two planets. In addition, adverse effects on the human body long space trips are not well understood, particularly cosmic radiation.
“Radiation in the space with increased risk of cancer is a danger to the crew that we need to understand, “said Stephen Davison, responsible NASA program Space Biology at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In addition to these radiation effects of microgravity on intracranial pressure are apparently responsible for vision problems of varying severity observed in astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS ), he said.
Finally, we must solve a problem of a psychological isolated for astronauts spending long periods in small spaces, says Stephen Davison. According to him “we must study the biological and psychological effe cts of space travel for at least ten years” before embarking on a mission to Mars.
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