By : thoughtfulnews.com January 4, 2023

When will humans land on Mars? If you’ve seen the movie The Martian, you know that surviving on Mars is no easy task. Space agencies like NASA and private space companies like SpaceX are talking about sending humans to Mars, but the task comes with its own set of challenges. Mars is more than 99 million kilometers away from her, nearly 250 times farther from Earth than her from the Moon.

Also, the mission to Mars will take him over 21 months. This is a long time in space for humans. But more importantly, a Mars mission could also prove deadly to the astronauts who attend. Here are four possibilities as to why.

1. The Right Rocket Launch :

There are currently no rockets capable of carrying out manned missions to Mars. However, the main competitors for this purpose include NASA’s SLS rocket and SpaceX’s Starship rocket. The latter is still being tested, but the former version has already launched the Artemis 1 mission. However, his SLS rocket in its current form cannot carry a mission to Mars and will have to be upgraded accordingly. This means that each rocket carrying out such missions will be a much newer and more complex machine than ever before.

And after all, each rocket is just a giant tank of fuel, propelled by some kind of controlled explosion. An astronaut strapped to a large fuel tank will never succeed. For this reason, one of the biggest risks of a mission to Mars could be a launch malfunction.

2. Astronauts Can Die For Various Reasons During Transportation :

But the danger doesn’t end after takeoff. Unlike lunar missions, astronauts must survive for up to nine months in the harsh atmosphere of space. This is the time NASA estimates it will take to reach Mars. During this time, deployed spacecraft must be well equipped to protect the crew from radiation and other space hazards.

Earth’s atmosphere protects us from the sun’s harsh radiation, but not in space. Even if the spacecraft were designed to absorb the normal amount of radiation expected in space, a solar flare spewing out toward the sun could expose astronauts to far more radiation than they would survive. is small.

The length of the mission also means that the spacecraft must carry larger quantities of life support systems such as oxygen and water. If any of these critical systems failed or proved inadequate during the long journey to or from Mars, astronauts would be stranded thousands of miles from Mars.

3. Landing on Mars :

The challenges aren’t just limited to surviving the journey to Mars. A Reasons soft landing on Mars is an equally difficult task. Currently, the United States, Russia, and China are the only three countries that have successfully soft-landed on Mars.

Mars has a much thinner atmosphere. The spacecraft will have less atmospheric friction and will slow down. At the same time, the atmosphere is thick enough to heat the ship to high temperatures.
A spacecraft attempting to land on the Red Planet must use a complex system of parachutes, Reasons heat shields, and other machinery to successfully and safely land its astronauts on Mars.

Last year, NASA completed a technical demonstration of his LOFTID aeroshell technology. This could one day be used to gently land astronauts on Mars. However, it will be a long time before the technology is deemed safe enough for manned spaceflight.

4. The Stay On Mars Could Kill Astronauts :

Earth and Mars orbit the Sun at different speeds, and the distance between the two planets varies throughout the year. For this reason, missions to Mars should occur during the launch window (once every 26 months) when the two planets are closest together. This also means that astronauts arriving on Mars may have to wait a while before returning to Mars to make sure Mars and Earth aren’t too far apart.

Astronauts will have to wait three to four months to return, according to NASA. Just as radiation was a threat to astronauts in space, the surface of Mars is also highly vulnerable to radiation. The thinness of Mars’ atmosphere means that astronauts are not as protected as it is on Earth.

Also, Mars’ gravitational pull is only about 38% that of Earth’s. We still don’t fully understand how low gravity affects the human body, especially Reasons with prolonged exposure. For example, an astronaut’s muscles have to work much less on Mars, resulting in less muscle strength. According to the Canadian Space Agency, astronauts aboard the International Space Station should exercise about two hours a day to counteract the negative effects on their muscles. The heart is also a muscle. Because of the lower gravity on Mars, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard as it does on Earth. This could also have a negative impact on astronauts spending long hours on Mars.