During a detailed talk on NASA’s objectives for human space analysis, people got an early peek of what a 30-day crewed mission to the surface of Mars could ultimately look like.
It’s an exhilarating prospect that many years if not decades, away indicates the agency’s commitment to fulfilling humanity’s fantasies of setting foot on the Red Planet for the first time.
NASA director of space architectures Kurt “Spuds” Vogel summarized what such a mission could encompass. The agency is anticipating a habitat spacecraft to make the months-long voyage there, utilizing a hybrid rocket stage that blends chemical and electric propulsion.
In the near future, missions to Mars could vary from just 30 days to nearly 500 days on the surface, which would take just a tight of two Earth years to complete; factoring in travel times,long-stay missions could even require 916 days to complete.
NASA is striving to take what we will finally learn from exploring the surface of the Moon and apply it to said time on the Martian surface.
