The idea of putting a man on Mars has become very popular in recent years, due to many of the plans put forth by NASA. And in a new statement, NASA reports that they could get astronauts in orbit of the red planet by 2033, and they will land on the surface on 2039.
During a conference, representatives from the Planetary Society, the largest non-governmental space advocacy organization worldwide, stated the results of the workshop where they discussed the feasibility and cost of the Mars mission saying they were happy to say that the mission is both plausible and within the budget of NASA.
Scott Hubbars, professor at Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the Planetary Society's board of directors, says that, "We believe we now have an example of a long-term, cost-constrained, executable humans-to-Mars program."
Two other science experts, Bill Nye (Planetary Society CEO) and John Logsdon (professor emeritus at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute and board of directors' member in Planetary Society) also gave their statements during the conference along with Hubbard.
The plan, created by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with suggestions of the Planetary Society, was discussed in detail including the feasibility, affordability and the benefits of a mission to the red planet.
The 2033 orbital mission is a crucial step in the initial part of the plan as astronauts will spend nine months traveling to the planet and another 12 months circling the two moons - Phobos and Deimos. The plan is to study these two moons and potentially use it as a hideout to maneuver rovers on Mars. The also want to use the Orion spacecraft to transfer crew members from Earth into orbit around the moons and then to the surface.
When the interviewers asked them about the potential problems that the mission might face, Logsdon says that, "I'm not saying the technical challenges aren't extraordinary and very, very difficult. And it's going to take a lot of thoughtful engineers and scientists giving it a lot of thought and science. But the real problem is politics - or the real opportunity is politics." So the decision and occurrence of the whole mission will depend on the next president.
Hubbard added that past missions were facing problems that were both technological and scientific, but the new project is more achievable and realistic than the previous proposals. There were several hurdles that were unanswerable before, but now these problems have been reduced or controlled. The biggest issue will be political will.
