Stages of the New Plan for Mars Exploration

in 2020 Elon Musk confidentially declared that his company would land the first human on Mars by 2026 it's now 2024 from what we can see musk hasn't had any luck and with Just 2 years remaining until his predicted date the prospect of seeing a human on Mars is to put it mildly unlikely meanwhile NASA seems to be in no hurry they're just now planning missions to the Moon again but even these missions are constantly being postponed so what went wrong in this video you'll learn why is it so hard to travel to Mars from Earth

why have we already traveled to the moon but not yet to Mars how and when is it planned to travel to Mars how are we going to conquer Mars please like this video And subscribe to our channel for more fascinating educational [Music] content what does conquering Mars even mean for most people this means at the very least to have a person fly there and plant a flag or to build a base with regularly rotating staff like on the ISS or even to terraform Mars that is to deliberately change its condition so much that it would

resemble Earth whatever people dream about for now even flying there and planting a flag is an extremely challenging task it would be a great achievement if the first interplanetary astronauts managed to reach the red planet and and successfully returned to Earth successfully means alive and preferably more or less healthy but why is it so difficult after all people went to the moon several times more than half a century ago because sending a person to Mars is because to put it mildly not the same as going to the moon this task is incomparably harder and now

we'll show you just how vast this difference is let's take a step back to fully comprehend this a human first set foot on the moon on July 20th 1969 and this wasn't a symbolic Mission just to plant a flag people worked there there were six man missions in total and 12 people were lucky enough to walk on its surface it took just 7 years from the Gold's announcement in 1962 to the landing of a human on the moon which is incredibly fast the question is is what's wrong with Mars why hasn't a single person been

there in more than half a century despite all his optimism even Elon Musk said in an interview with entrepreneur and space adventurers co-owner Peter diamandis honestly a bunch of people will probably die in the beginning honestly a bunch of people probably won't die in the beginning it's it's tough seding over there you know we're an exploring species so what makes it so difficult imagine that you need to walk to a shopping mall 1 km about 0.6 M away from your home and back it would take you about half an hour or you could comfortably make

the trip in slippers and you probably wouldn't get very tired you certainly wouldn't need to bring sandwiches to have a snack on the way now imagine having to walk not 1 km 0.6 Mi but 140 km 87 miles plus the same distance back that's more than a beine from New York to Philadelphia keep in mind that this route would go through uninhabited terrain with no roads stores or people a regular person wouldn't be able to cover this distance in a day or two if there are no stores along the way you'd need to carry food

water medicine tools and a raincoat sleeping bag and a tent because there would be nowhere to buy supplies on the way if such a traveler breaks a leg halfway then they're almost certainly doomed this is rough roughly how a flight to Mars compares to a flight to the Moon only many times worse the distance to the Moon is stable 384,000 km about 238,857 Mi while Mars is at least 56 million km about 34.8 million M away which is about 140 times further than the moon this is the minimum value because this distant constantly keeps changing

given that planets orbit the Sun at different speeds at some point Earth and Mars can end up on opposite sides of the sun then the distance will reach 400 million km about 248.50 million miles that's 1,000 times farther than the distance between the Moon and the Earth in our example with a hiker this is like walking from New York to Chicago mind you all of this is on foot and we emphasize on foot for a reason considering the size of our solar system and the universe as a whole the current human space travel is almost

snail paste with modern technology a one-way flight to Mars will take 7 months or even nearly a year that's because of the distance the enormous distance is the main issue with a man Mission to Mars and all other problems come from it there are plenty of those problems too during all these months the crew needs to eat and drink keep their bodies clean monitor their health and perform many daily tasks they also need to get along with each other in a confined space all this would happen in a setting with numerous threats breakdowns Cosmic radiation

and no chance of receiving help from Earth even getting simple advice from Specialists on Earth will be delayed by 10 or even 20 minutes depending on the current distance can we somehow assess in advance the likelihood of such a mission's success well see for yourself in over 60 years 48 missions have been sent towards Mars including those that didn't even involve Landing a probe or Rover of these 26 failed even the chances of an unmanned mission's success are almost 50/50 you see even unmanned considering all of this Elon musk's words about the likely deaths of

the first Mars explorers sound frighteningly convincing and keep in mind that this is coming from musk who is widely known for his optimistic take on Mars exploration but no matter what Humanity does not intend to give up therefore we will stop pessimistic thoughts for today and move on to how the optimists plan to get to Mars let's take this journey along with them first we'll see how NASA the most iconic space agency in the world sees this so the first problem is is actually taking off getting out of Earth's powerful gravitational pull now this all

depends on how much equipment needs to be taken along take a look at this space shuttle that performed man missions to Earth's orbit it's a huge rocket 56 M about 183 ft long but even it looks like a toy compared to the Saturn V that delivered man missions to the Moon one can only imagine what a monstrous rocket one would need to lift all the enormous supplies and equipment required for an Earth to Mars mission to get this into perspective let's go back to our example with the hiker from the start of the video and

complicate it a little bit imagine you need to walk those very same 140 km about 87 Mi through uninhabited terrain with a full supply of food water and everything else in your huge heavy backpack and now here's the kicker the PA will be off-road but on flat terrain however the first kilometer must be covered on a very steep slope so steep that you might not make it to the top and even if you do you might collapse at the top unable to go any further this roughly describes the scenario of starting a mission to Mars

directly from Earth it's almost impossible to build a rocket that can lift a giant load in wo fly to Mars with it and then return not to mention Landing people on the surface surface that's why NASA decided that the first Mann Mission to Mars won't start from Earth it makes much more sense to start from a place where there is no strong Earth gravity currently the most accessible option for Humanity is to transport all the necessary spacecraft Parts Fuel and cargo to orbit in several launches assemble everything there and then start the mission however NASA

decided to go one step further by building a base on the moon and simultaneously a space station in lunar orbit the idea is that if the spacecraft is launched from space where there's zero gravity it wouldn't be such an insurmountable task to start the mission to mass the station itself can be built in several stages as the task can be broken down into Parts this is like in our example with the hiker first you'd run several times up the mentioned slope to carry provisions water and everything else during several trips you'd then store it all

in a simple but built in advance and only then set off with a heavy backpack but on flat terrain actually this is a very serious program that has been in development for several years it's called emis and there has already been a successful flight within its framework no we haven't missed anything people haven't returned to the Moon yet but humanity is is now closer to this goal than it has been in the past 50 years the emis program includes many stages so far only the first stage has been successfully completed in November 2022 NASA launched

the SLS rocket which was designed based on Technologies of the Saturn V rocket and reusable space shuttle ships it delivered the Orion spacecraft to the Moon which was sent without a crew for the first mission it orbited the moon and safely returned to Earth this was the aremis 1 Mission emus 2 will follow the same route but with a crew in September 2025 according to the plan astronauts will fly to the moon without Landing during this Mission they'll confirm that all spacecraft systems are fully functional in deep space conditions the flight is expected to take

10 days which includes orbiting the moon the emus 3 mission will involve Landing astronauts on the moon for the first time in half a century the Orion spacecraft is not designed to land on the moon so the Luna spaceship module developed by SpaceX will be used for this task Orion and the lunar Starship module will meet in lunar orbit then the astronauts will transfer to the Luna Starship for The Descent to the lunar surface the astronauts will spend about 7 days on the moon exploring the South Pole region and establishing a base this Mission will

set a record for the longest human stay on the moon surpassing the 72-hour mission of Apollo 17 the internal volume of the Luna Starship module would provide much more Comfort compared to the Apollo Mission Vehicles during the mission two astronauts will conduct several Moonwalks performing various scientific observations including collecting samples of water ice let's try to look even further into the future when the red planet will be within our Arms Reach in every sense of the word during emis 4 the active stage of constructing the lunar Gateway station will begin this orbital station will go

around the moon and serve as an intermediate point for Missions to the lunar surface and eventually to Mars the first step is the launch of two key modules of the future station the power and propulsion element PPE and the habitation and Logistics Outpost h l on the Falcon heavy rocket scheduled for 2027 they'll be sent into space in a single cluster it will take approximately a year for the modules to reach their target orbit after completing all necessary checks the dragon XL Supply ship will be launched to the Gateway following the docking of the Luna

Starship which is designed for landing astronauts on the moon after this the station will finally receive its first visitors the astronauts of the emis 4 Expedition what will happen next up until the 11th Mission it will be a complex and exciting yet somewhat routine process under the emis program astronauts will build and improve the orbital station mission after mission they will establish a lunar base on the moon develop lunar infrastructure rure and run countless tests experiments and trials the objectives will be varied but the primary goal for all of them will be preparing for a

mission to Mars the 11th emis mission is the last one that NASA has officially announced it's scheduled for 2036 the further we look into the future the less specific details we have even from official sources however we'll still piece together all the data all the plans hypotheses Concepts and expert opinions to show you the likely course of events while emis Missions 4 through 11 will primarily focus on the developing infrastructure on the moon and its orbit starting with the 12th Mission the vision of the main goal the future Mars flight will start to come into

Focus let's imagine how this might unfold now let's Envision Artemus 12 first and foremost for most astronaut teams will work on and streamline Technologies for obtaining water and oxygen from readily available sources essentially lunar mineral deposits of course this doesn't mean turning rocks into water it means finding ways to efficiently process deposits of lunar ice for this geological studies will be conducted on the moon to search for and extract resources including water iice reserves by the way way if you want to get ahead of things oxygen can also be extracted on Mars and not necessarily

from water recently the perseverance Mars Rover successfully proved this it utilized Moxy Mars oxygen in situ resource utilization experiment a kit designed to experiment with extracting oxygen from the carbon dioxide in Mars's atmosphere so the prospects are promising but let's return to the moon what else can be done there to prepare us for a mission to Mars during timus 13 astronauts will likely refine the rapid construction technology these technologies will be essential for long-term Luna missions so they'll have to be developed on the moon first and then transferred to Mars for this NASA is exploring

Innovative approaches the agency is seriously considering 3D printing as a technology for cre creting habitats on the moon and Mars in 2020 it signed a contract with icon a company specializing in Innovative Construction Technologies the idea of using lunar igth for building bases and protective structures using 3D printing technology is also being considered analog missions will be a crucial component of the subsequent program missions starting with Artemis 14 and continuing through Artemus 20 NASA will conduct analog tests on the moon to evaluate the capabilities of future Martian habitate capsules suets and life support systems NASA

plans to use the fish and surface power system to generate energy on the moon this is a pinnacle of engineering a power plant capable of converting the energy from uranium atom fish into electrical energy essentially it is a compact nuclear reactor this system will power the lunar base providing a stable and reliable energy Supply several such systems will be implemented so that one system can replace another in case of failure ensuring the base's additional protection and stable operation the power output of one nuclear energy system will be 40 KW astronauts will also test and develop

Advanced life support systems they'll grow plants in special green houses and use microbes to recycle waste the recycling process will produce oxygen and food for instance astronauts will be able to use lunar soil in hydroponic setups to grow vegetables and microbes will help convert organic waste into fertilizers for plants astronauts will study the effects of low gravity and radiation on bone mass as well as the impact of living in confined spaces on Mental Health telescopes will be installed to observe space without the interference of Earth's atmosphere by the 20th mission NASA and his Partners will

have developed the lunar infrastructure enough for astronaut teams to stay there permanently and feel at home then we'll take a historic step that will make the red planet much more accessible and the plans for its colonization much more realistic we are talking about the construction of the first orbital Martian station in history Lockheed Martin the corporation that created the man Orion spacecraft presented the Mars base camp project in 2016 the concept includes a martian orbital station that can accommodate up to six astronauts having a station in Mars orbit will significantly accelerate the process of actually

traveling to the red planet however before attempting to land on Mars some conditions must be established for the first explorers according to NASA's plans the conquest of Mars will be be carried out in three stages so stage one some equipment will be brought to Mars in advance before humans arrive these units will be initially delivered from Earth to the Luna station and from there to Mars it is likely that the fish and software power system will be deployed on the red planet several of these systems will be dropped on the surface they are the ones

that will make the future martian base energy autonomous and independent of sunlight otherwise any prolonged dust storm could cause significant issues in addition to the fishing surface Power Systems themselves fuel supplies and equipment of fuel transfer will be sent to the planet in advance according to the approximate estimates the total weight of the essential cargo will be tens of tons this is orders of magnitude more than any automated Mission to Mars ever undertaken to put this into perspective the weight of the most Advanced and heaviest Rover perseverance is just over 1 ton 2,260 according to

NASA's concept special heavyduty cargo Landers designed to carry 25 tons will be used for such cargo missions cargo Landers are spacecraft designed to deliver Goods to other planets or moons in the second stage a special module called the Mars Ascent vehicle MAV will be sent to Mars's surface this vehicle is designed to bring astronauts back to Mars's orbit it will be a relatively compact structure equipped with rocket engines capable of overcoming Mars's relatively low gravity and carrying people and cargo into orbit finally in the third stage astronauts will fly to Mars from the Lunar Station

aboard the deep space transport spacecraft equipped with the transit habitat module the transit habitat is a living module that provides astronauts with sleeping quarters work and rest areas air and water regeneration systems and radiation protection for long space missions it will take 10 months to reach Mars then two people will descend to Mars while two remain on the orbital station the astronauts will use a specialized Landing module to descend to the planet's surface this module will be pre- delivered to Mars's orbit and ready for use when the crew arrives in orbit essentially this will be

both a vehicle and a home for the astrona NASA's idea was to combine the first Martian home and transport vehicle into one Rover equipped with an Air Supply system this is all about optimization to reduce the number of items needed for landing on the surface the agency has been working on creating this Rover for a long time and has even conducted extensive prototype testing on Earth in the sealed Rover which resembles a van there will be everything the astronauts will need to live and work for several weeks they'll be able to travel around Mars inside

it wearing comfortable clothing instead of bulky space suits which they'll only need to wear outside the vehicle this futuristic looking machine will be designed for two to four crew members the Rover will have several functional compartments including medical exercise and storage areas as well as a gallery and crew cabins the life support systems and the environment will be designed in general 30 to 60 days of fully autonomous operation after landing on the red planet the astronauts will conduct research naturally they'll take numerous soil samples okay we've figured out the astronauts descent to Mars but how

will they get back into space and return home here's how it's going to happen having collected Mars samples the crew will fly to the planet's orbit on the MAV which was sent to the red planet during the second stage the crew will spend about 2 and 1/2 Martian days around 60 hours traveling to the orbital station where the deep space transport with the transit habitat module will be pre-docked after docking the crew and cargo will transfer to the transit habitat and the MAV will be discarded next the deep space transport will set out for a

long trip back to Earth which will take approximately 17 months the Orion spacecraft will meet it once it reaches High Earth orbit Orion will take all four crew members and land them safely on earth now let's take a look at the entire Mars flight epic in the grand scheme of things the fact that spacecraft carrying astronauts to Mars will be launched from lunar orbit rather than from Earth or the moon itself makes the whole launch process much easier do you remember our example with the cabin at the top and the hiker indeed packing your backpack

at the top and traveling over flat terrain is much easier than hauling it up in one go but there's one caveat this life hack doesn't eliminate the vast distance that one still needs to cover we can travel to Mars only at specific times when the planet is at a certain distance after all planets don't stand still they move around the Sun and since the spacecraft will be traveling for many months the trajectory must be calculated so that both the spacecraft and Mars literally meet at one point in the shortest possible time there are only two

such Windows of opportunity and they imply different trajectories namely conjunction class and opposite class a conjunction class trajectory requires less fuel due to the use of convenient launch Windows for the outbound and return trips however it requires a lot of time around 900 to 1,000 days with about 400 and 600 of those days spent on Mars an opposition class trajectory on the other hand requires more fuel but reduces the Expedition time to 560 to 700 days and people stay on Mars to about 30 to 90 days the difference in fuel costs is significant more than

threefold therefore at first NASA did not consider the opposition class trajectory as a viable option however in recent years this perspective has changed the new Mt study of 2023 exclusively examines the opposition class Mission concept for the first Mann expeditions to Mars it's crucial to reduce the risks of equipment failure and cruise radiation explosure both of which increase with the mission's duration in this regard the opposition class Expedition has a significant Advantage interestingly this trajectory involves performing a gravity assist flyby near Venus it might even seem peculiar to get to Mars faster one must fly

to Venus which is in the opposite direction but that's how orbital mechanics work sometimes quite strangely and unexpectedly so now we have the full picture of how humans Will Conquer Mars in the future both in general and in detail the question remains when when will a living person set foot on the planet at the time of this video's release NASA's current announcement and forecasts indicated that the Artemus program would reach its final stage with a man landing on Mars by 2039 however given the shifting timelines of timus 2 the actual date for a Mann Mission

to Mars might be postponed much further it's impossible to predict this there are too many unknowns in this equation one thing is clear every step forward in the moon exploration brings us closer to the next big step for Humanity life on the red planet