In an interview published in L'Express (via California 18), Astronaut Thomas Pesquet said that a trip to Mars would not likely take shape by 2035 to 2040. In his opinion, it would be a long and perilous trip and learning about it was necessary.
Pesquet also spoke about multiplanetary vision, space tourism, and the NASA human mission to Mars.
Thomas Pesquet Comment on Multiplanetary Vision
Pesquet answered several questions about the mission to Mars, space exploration, and multiplanetary vision. He answered based on the scientific processes underway to achieve such missions.
One of the questions being asked was his comment on the multiplanetary vision of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, in which they believed that the future of humanity would go through an expansion into space.
He admitted that he was wary of it because the space agency has been occupying space for 60 years and is aware of how challenging it is and how treacherous the road is. For him, it is necessary to advance gradually. As a result, it is unrealistic to promise a million colonists will live on Mars' surface within the next 20 years.
He said that Mars will be the next destination, but the journey there will first be completed by a crew of 5 to 10 experts due to the complexity of the mission.
It is still the discovery phase of the mission. To accomplish it, nearly 40 tons of logistics must first land on a planet with no atmosphere. After the discovery phase, there will be a period of appropriation during which they must learn to survive in the hostile environment. From there, they will determine whether or not to send extra people there.
Despite everything we were told, Pesquet admitted they did not know what to do. He said to exercise caution when making calendar announcements.
Thomas Pesquet Opinion on Space Tourism
When asked about space tourism, he said there are two routes -suborbital flights and SpaceX. Bezos and Branson fly suborbitally. However, Branson hasn't flown since his first flight a year ago, whereas Bezos has completed five flights with his New Sheppard. Finally, there is only one stay on the side of SpaceX and Axiom. Although he said both remain extremely minor, people must not remain blind to the emerging trend as tourism will take off.
He has a vision for space travel and does not want it to continue as a leisure activity for the rich. Instead, he advocates for space travel as long as it progresses similarly to space exploration-that is, by benefiting as many people as possible.
He gave examples of how some manufacturers move in this direction, like imagining private space stations with a research module. However, he also pointed out the need to reduce carbon emissions as more space flights increase.
Crew-2 Mission Specialist Input on NASA Human Mission to Mars and Moon
When asked about the moon mission, Pesquet said they are sticking with the notion that humans will be present near the Moon in the middle of the 2020s via a station called Gateway. The Europeans hope to accomplish it in the second half of the decade, within the parameters of their agreements with NASA.
He added that the European agency would probably have to wait until the end of the decade while the Americans want to quickly (around 2025) step foot on lunar soil.
For the Mars mission, Pesquet believed that the interest in exploring the Red planet was because of it's potential to be the next home to humanity like Earth.
"Mars was habitable and welcomed all the conditions for a form of life to develop there," the French engineer and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut explained. "Then everything stopped."
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