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| Have you noticed that quite a few future scenes take place on Mars? The planet provides a good "fuzzy" setting because, although the environment is extreme, living and working there is scientifically plausible. Besides, Mars seems like the logical next step for humanity to venture into space. But can we reasonably look forward to people living on Mars in your lifetime? The big obstacle is money. When President Bush called for a mission to Mars back in 1989, NASA came up with a $450 billion price tag and a 30-year timeline. Recently, however, a new proposal has emerged. The Mars Direct plan, developed by NASA contractor Martin Marietta Astronautics, lays out a strategy to put humans on Mars for only $40 billion and within the next decade. How will these efficiencies be achieved? The Mars Direct plan uses existing technology and takes advantage of the fact that, unlike the Moon, Mars has an atmosphere. Here's how the plan might work. NASA would send out the first mission without fuel and without people. After the spacecraft landed, pumps would bring the Martian atmosphere into a reaction chamber where the planet's gases would be converted into methane, water, and oxygen. Two years later, a mission with people would land on Mars. The human crew would live and work primarily on the craft it came on, but switch to the first spacecraft for the trip home. The first craft would be ready to fly because methane and oxygen make excellent rocket fuel and the crew would be able to consume the extracted water. Each two-part mission would leave a spacecraft behind on the Martian surface. When these abandoned "resource huts" are eventually joined together, they will form the building blocks of a base for permanent living on Mars. Other plans are on the table as well. The only real hurdle left is the political will to spend the money and go. Source: "Will We Live on Mars," Time, April 10, 2000, pp. 60-63. PROBLEM SOLVING: How might a case be made for spending $40 billion dollars for a mission to Mars? What problem solving approaches did Martin Marietta Astronautics use to solve the challenges of interplanetary space travel? If we are able to "colonize" Mars in your lifetime, what decisions should you make before becoming one of the "settlers"? What, if anything, should we set our sites on after Mars? S | ||||||||
The atmosphere of Mars is 95% carbon dioxide. The shortest distance between Earth and Mars occurs every 26 months, when the orbits of the two planets line up for a journey of less than eight months. More than 130 people have put down deposits for a flight to Mars with Space Adventures of Arlington, Virginia. The exotic vacation, tentatively scheduled for 2005, will cost $98,000. The whole venture is dubious, to say the least. | |||||||||
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