NASA Releases Plan for Manned Mission

NASA released details for sending humans to Mars within the next 10 years. The plan is to send the crew on a 30-month round trip to the Red Planet. In January 2004, President George W Bush unveiled his space travel plan of sending humans back to the Moon by 2020 and to Mars in the relatively near future. The mission is now planned to begin in February 2031 as the spacecraft takes the six to seven month trip to Mars. The cost is enormous for the project and has been estimated at $20 billion to $450 billion. The specifics have not been established and the current plan is just the "best strategy" for landing humans on the surface. The cargo lander and the surface habitat will be launched separately landing before the crew does in 2028 and 2029. Astronauts will be able to grow their own fruit and vegetables on the way and they could spend up to 16 months on the Martian surface. They could use nuclear energy to power their habitat. The crew members would need to be incredibly self-sufficient because it would be near impossible to resupply them with food or equipment. The spacecraft will also be equipped with a life support system that would provide a medium for recycling air and water. The biggest risk lies in the ability to protect the astronauts from the high levels of cosmic radiation they will be exposed to in deep space and on the surface of Mars. NASA will most likely use the lunar mission as a means of testing some effects on the astronauts.

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