Human Space Exploration: Here’s What NASA’s 30-Day Crewed Mission to the Martian Surface Looks Like

In a high-level talk on the objectives of NASA for human space exploration, NASA gave an early glimpse of what a 30-day crewed mission to the surface of Mars could certainly look like.

This is an exciting prospect that, while many years, "if not decades from now," shows the commitment of the American space agency to fulfilling the dreams of humans of setting foot on the Red Planet, for the first time in history, a Futurism report specified.

Kurt "Spuds" Vogel, NASA director of space, outlined the mission's mission. In addition, the agency is foreseeing a habitat spacecraft to make the months-long journey to the Red Planet, which uses a hybrid rocket stage that incorporates chemical and electric propulsion.

A pair of astronauts would stay in orbit while two more would visit the Mars surface. The latter mentioned would have access to supplies sent beforehand to the surface via a 23-ton Mars lander, surface power and mobility, and a fueled-up pre-deployed crew ascent vehicle to get both of them back into the orbit.

30-Day Mission

To spend up to an Earth month on the desolate surface of Mars, explained Votel, "the two crew members could live inside a pressurized rover that would offer habitation and enable them to complete scientific objectives, too.

As specified in a similar True Viral News, the NASA official also said they assume that the crew will be conditioned, and much time is needed to adjust to the partial gravity. Essentially, gravity on the Red Planet is only approximately a third of that on Earth.

Therefore, Votel said, they want to maximize the science, so they allow them to drive around before becoming conditioned enough to get in the spacesuits and walk and maximize that science in 30 days.

In the near future, Mars missions could range from only 30 days on the surface, which could only take only short of two Earth years, to an entire factoring in travel times, to nearly 200 days on the surface, a long-staying mission that could take around 916 days to complete.

The Transit Habitat

Unsurprisingly, Vogel and his team concluded that 30 days on the Martian surface was far more plausible given the astronomical amount of costs and logistics involved.

NASA hopes to take what will eventually be learned from the exploration of the Moon's surface and apply it to spending time on the surface of Mars.

Nonetheless, before any such mission kicks off, the space agency has a lot of work. It is only beginning to gear up to launch its Artemis I mission, an uncrewed journey around the Moon and back, which has a maiden voyage of its SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft slated for later this year.

From there, the agency is planning to designate a more fixed presence on the Moon, the Lunar Gateway, as a stepping stone to transfer astronauts to the surface and eventually create a conceptual spacecraft called the Transit Habitat, which is detailed on the NASA website, meant to house astronauts on their much, much longer trip to the Red Planet.

This means that it could be quite a long time before one could attain a more concrete idea of what a crewed journey to the surface of Mars could actually look like.

Related information about the mission to Mars is shown on NBC News's YouTube video below:

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