Sciences >
Earth Science (Other)
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs human space travel to the planet Mars too dangerous?
Results so far:
| No | 63% | 642 votes | Total: 1018 votes | |
| Yes | 37% | 376 votes |
No
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesIs it dangerous to attempt a manned mission to Mars? Of course it is. All exploration is dangerous. Anytime mankind has pushed the boundaries, people have had to pay a price. Even with all the dangers out in the open, the list of humans that would volunteer for such a mission would be almost endless.
We put men on the moon using less computer power than is found in the cell phones that we all carry. If nothing else, our advances in technology will make the journey safer for the explorers than it was for the brave souls that took part in the missions to the moon. People bring up the failures in the space program all the time and say it is dangerous. Anytime you are sitting on top of millions of pounds of explosive material, there is a potential for a disaster. How many times have we successfully launched men and materials in space? It happens so often now that only the disasters make headlines. We have gotten so good at launching the rockets from the Earth that it is becoming a problem in orbit. Space junk as it is called, old satellites, broken pieces even bolts are zooming around the planet as we speak.
Look at the amount of progress we have made since the beginning of the "space age". In 60 or so years we have put mankind's footprints on the moon and have made it literally possible for someone to walk on another planet. If you look at the actual number of deaths versus the number of people that have been in space and returned safely, the odds are in our favor.
Most of these advances were even made during our Cold War, or the space race. We have now entered an era where nations aren't competing against each other. We are working together. The international space station is a good example. Instead of guarding the information each country has as military secrets, they are sharing for the common purpose. Space exploration.
I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime. I hope that it does. A manned mission to Mars may not even prove anything that we don't already know. What it will do is prove even more that when we work together, not as Americans or Russians or Chinese but as citizens of Earth, we can do what at one time was an impossibility. Mankind can and will walk on another world, maybe even live on it sometime in the not-to-distant future.
Learn more about this author, T. Scott Randolph.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Yes
After the "visit" to the Moon by the first humans of the Apollo spaceship in 1969, the following target for humans seems to be mars, but the first walk of a man on its red surface is programmed, with many uncertainty, for 2025-30 by NASA.
With the technologies available so far, many and enormous are the technical and organization problems still to resolve and these imply also many fatal risks for human crews, firstly, for the very long times required for the journey to Mars, about 2-3 months, minimum and the same to come back.
These long travels are showed to be harmful for astronauts because, living in the space for long periods, their bones and muscles tend to reduce until the atrophy, due to the absence of gravity that justifies their strength and resistance. Also body circulation changes, with a higher blood flux to head and brain, among the various problems. This, despite all the gymnastic that astronauts try to make in the space, as much as possible, to avoid these effects.
Only on Mars itself this absence of gravity would be partially compensated, given that gravity on this planet is 38% of that on the Earth, but a recovery of the lost bone tissue during the long travel could be very slow and not complete.
Another serious problem is the absence of protections from cosmic radiations (that can cause cancer) on Mars surface, due to its much less dense atmosphere (the atmospheric pressure on Mars is about 1/100 of that on the Earth) and to the absence of a strong magnetic field able to block and divert the charged particles of cosmic rays and solar wind. So, human body would need particularly strong and resistant protections against such penetrating radiations and our permanence on Mars would be a rather claustrophobic life in bunkers underground, surely, not very attractive for most people.
Also the beginning of the return phase would be particularly delicate and full of risks for the need of enough energy to start from Mars surface and reach the Earth; every technical problem could be impossible to resolve on Mars, especially during the first exploring missions, without a stable and really autonomous human base and, in most cases, it would be fatal.
Now, the additional resources for the return journey could be provided by an automatic spaceship sent on Mars just before the mission with a human crew, loaded with fuel and supplies, but the spaceship with the crew should land on Mars just in the zone where the supplies will have been sent.
The Sun could provide additional energy for various purposes, but the light of our star is weaker on Mars than on the Earth and this decreases the energy available.
Moreover, Mars is swept by long and violent wind storms that would reduce much the solar light reaching the ground where this energy is necessary and this could stop or reduce much many important activities on Mars and also create danger for the spaceships at their landing or departure.
Let's not forget that human beings, just arrived on Mars, will have come after months in the space with the physical problems described above and could have great problems to move and work on Mars, although the gravity over there is the 38% of that on the Earth, with possible stress and accidents. Then, another 2-3 months would be necessary for the return and the total is about 4-6 months, doubling the physical problems and the risks.
This timing would be easily conditioned by the variable distance between Earth and Mars that could increase the journey duration and reduce the favourable times to travel between the two planets. Whatever technical problem delaying the starting of the mission can miss the favourable moment of minimum distance, waited maybe for years. This, would oblige to complete the mission in longer times, for not to wait another minimum distance period after 3 or 5 years.
For these reasons, it would be very important to decrease much the journey times to Mars (only few weeks, for ex,), providing spaceships with much more energy from fuels, always with particular regard for the return. This would increase the technical problems and risks in managing, storing and controlling all this fuel in safety.
At this point, what are the best energy sources for travelling to Mars?
- Nuclear energy? With all its problems of radioactivity and contamination, in case of explosion, leaks and fall of the spaceship just at its launch from the Earth? A space launches base on the Moon would avoid the Earth radioactive contamination, in case of nuclear accident, but not that of the same Moon base, making it unavailable for long periods.
Another problem is that the nuclear engines for spaceships, in any case, would be produced on the Earth and carried to the base on the Moon to be assembled, with the risk of accidents in the critical phase of the launch. Nuclear energy is really the energy of the devil!
- Or hydrogen? To reduce the mission times, enormous amounts of this explosive liquefied gas at absurd temperatures (below -250 C) should be consumed and stored in the spaceship and, of course, on Mars for the return trip). How to carry all this hydrogen previously, always, in the shortest times possible?
All these great technological problems are today unresolved and the needed money investment on the long term is really far beyond our economic possibilities for the great technological improvement still to be achieved and the nearly infinite things that will have to work perfectly to avoid an easy disaster. For these reasons, I think all next missions on Mars should be made only with automatic spaceships, without humans on board.
It will be less "romantic" and "heroic" but, at least, much less expensive, considering that automatic devices don't eat, don't drink, cannot suffer of depression, don't need air to breath and neither some sleep hours to rest and, above all, nobody risks to die.
The automatic programmed machines are the only "slaves" we can exploit without any moral problem toward them; so, these are the only means we have to travel and settle on Mars.
Learn more about this author, Aldo Bonincontro.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
