The Trip To Mars There are so many problems with including humans on long endurance space flights, it will be hard to solve all of them. Space is taking its toll just on those in the space station for a few months, imagine what it would do to astronauts on long missions. NASA is preparing to set up a test. This test will include 4 astronauts. They will be put in a simulated Mars habitat where they will have to live for a year. They will be given missions to perform and one can only hope they don’t land up killing each other after all that time. I am only kidding, but it is very tough for just a couple of people to get along for extended periods time, and I am sure NASA already knows this. Another thing I am wondering about is if these are not the same people who will be sent to Mars, what actually will this test have proven? Everybody has a different personality and four other people might react to each other differently. If this is just a test to see if people get along, I think we already know the answer and it is we don’t know what might happen. There are other things to also consider. What if one or more of the people get sick? I am sure their health will be checked before astronauts actually leave for Mars. But the long voyage could require taking care of sick astronauts. Even worse if they caught something infectious, they could all get sick. While this is unlikely, it could still happen. While most of our missions to other planets which were unmanned had a high order of success, something still could go wrong. There is no doubt manned missions are still dangerous. Think about this, if something went wrong, would we be able to send a ship to rescue them? The answer is probably not. It might take many months to reach them, depending how far into the voyage they were. If there was a life threatening problem, they would probably be long dead by the time help got there. What kind of problems could they face? There could be any type of equipment problem. Say they carry a 3D printer, which has been suggested, and the printer breaks. You might say so what, but the purpose of the printer is to make a part if one fails. It might also be used to build a habitat on Mars. A failure of the printer could be devastating. When in space even a grain of sand traveling fast enough could cause a leak if it hits the rocket. The space station has protection against these micro collisions. I am not sure if the rocket would be able to accept that extra weight. The space station has what are known as Whipple shields. There are over 200 of them on the station. NASA admits the number one threat for a spacecraft is orbital debris. A grain of sand can travel at 22,000 miles per hour, and become a killer. NASA has said they have developed shielding to protect against dangers of these objects and tells us a fleck of paint 1 centimeter inflicts the same damage when it its as a 550 pound object traveling at 60 miles per hour. Everything drifting through space is traveling very fast, fast enough to make them very dangerous. There is no protection for the bigger stuff except detection and moving out of the way. Even the space station has had to move to avoid being hit by some of the debris orbiting the earth. Radiation can be deadly to a human and there is radiation in space. The longer the journey, the more exposure to radiation takes place. We have been working on some sort of plasma shield for years, but so far, it seems to be only a dream. What does this mean for the crew of a craft on a journey to Mars? While there has been suggestions, it seems to me nothing really beats lead, but lead is very heavy and using it on every part of the rocket seems to be impractical. It could be used in a safe area on the rocket where if the radiation got too heavy, it would provide a way to get away from it. NASA is conducting research on an anti-radiation vest for the astronauts which is named AstroRad. They are also conducting research on what the safe limits of radiation are on the human body and the risks of cancer. On earth we are exposed to about 3 to 4 millisieverts of radiation a year. Astronauts on the space station however, are exposed to about 300 millisieverts a year. Radiation is only one of the risks, another is weightlessness. We have all seen the results of prolonged stays at the space station. When astronauts come back to earth, they can hardly walk and sometimes need to be helped. This is because your muscles relax due to the fact they no longer had to pull against gravity. Your muscles weaken and so do your bones. What we need is artificial gravity. I am not talking about using rotation which gives unequal force, but a way to mimic the gravity of the earth which we are used to. The further people get away from earth, the stronger the stress. People begin to feel if there is a problem, earth is too far away to be of any help, especially if the problem is life threatening. This could have an effect on one’s psyche. When planning for a mission to Mars, every contingency must be planned for, but I think we all know, no matter how thorough the planning, there could always be something which happens which was not planned for. Food is another problem. Even if there is plenty to eat, astronauts will probably not have the assortment of choices of food which would have been available to them on earth. While it doesn’t seem on its face that variety in the menu is important, if there is not enough of it, it can make people react unpleasantly to their situation. There is a lot of planning which will have to go into a trip to Mars. A round trip could take up to three years. If a nuclear powered rocket is used it could make the trip go faster, but it still would be years before the astronauts would return. It is man’s destiny to travel to other planets just as it was to explore the world, and I am sure nothing short of a world war will stop it.
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