As far as mankind’s exploration of space is concerned, Mars certainly tops the list. However — needless to say — Mars is far too uncertain a land and it is essential that the experts go prepared to the Red Planet. Therefore, astronauts plan on taking a series of small steps towards the planet by returning to the Moon for a year-long mission.
NASA reportedly laid out details of a mission in lunar orbit as part of a timeline of events leading to missions to Mars in 2030 at the Humans to Mars Summit held in Washington DC recently.
(Image: NASA)
Deputy associate administrator for policy and plans at NASA Greg Williams outlined the space agency’s four-stage plan which will hopefully allow humans to visit Mars in an expected time-frame.
The plan will involve multiple visits to lunar space in order to construct a habitable atmosphere at the staging area. And a year-long simulation of life on Mars will be conducted in 2027, according to Space.com.
Speaking at the Mars Summit, Mr Williams said: 'If we could conduct a year-long crewed mission on this Deep Space Transport in cislunar space, we believe we will know enough that we could then send this thing, crewed, on a 1,000-day mission to the Mars system and back. We're trying to lead this journey to Mars with a broad range of partnerships.”
One of the things we'll be doing over the next few years is, putting that package together. What players want to provide what, both nationally and internationally, and how we can together, with Nasa in an orchestrating role, really move out on these crewed missions to Mars,” Mr Williams added.
