trip in mars

How NASA is planning to get humans to Mars

The upcoming Artemis II mission is the first step in a long mission

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NASA recently announced the crew of its upcoming Artemis II mission, which will be the first manned trip to the moon since 1972. The launch is being billed as the first step toward getting humans to Mars , but how does NASA plan to do that? Here's everything you need to know:

How will NASA get to Mars?

The journey will start with the Artemis program, which has the goal of establishing the first long-term human outpost on the moon. From there, NASA says , they "will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars."

In 2022, NASA unveiled a rough outline for its first crewed Mars mission, identifying "50 points falling under four overarching categories of exploration, including transportation and habitation; moon and Mars infrastructure; operations; and science." These objectives "will inform our exploration plans at the moon and Mars for the next 20 years," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

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These objectives include , among other things, "[Developing] a transportation system that can deliver large surface elements from Earth to the Martian surface," as well as "[developing] Mars surface power sufficient for the initial human Mars demonstration mission," and building "entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems capable of delivering crew and large cargo to the Martian surface."

However, there is still a ton of work to be done, as making a human trip to Mars "will be challenging," Space.com writes. The distance itself will play a major factor. Earth and Mars are an average of 140 million miles away from each other, and it would take about 500 days round-trip to get between the two planets, "assuming the funding and technology come into play at the right time," the outlet adds. A lack of gravity would also pose a significant problem, so crews may have to live in a pressurized cabin during the mission to help acclimatize to the change.

If all goes well — and that is a big "if" — Space.com notes that NASA "envisions using a habitat-like spacecraft to ferry crew members to the red planet, using a hybrid rocket stage (powered by both chemical and electrical propulsion)." The initial mission would be made by four people, with two making the journey to the Martian surface. But since you can't live on a desolate planet by yourself, NASA estimates the crew would need at least 25 tons of supplies awaiting them on Mars, which will have been delivered by a prior rover mission.

How will Artemis II help accomplish this goal?

The mission, set to launch toward the end of 2024, will be the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, the vessel that has been tapped to send humans to Mars. Both the Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) associated with it "are critical to NASA's exploration plans at the moon and beyond," the agency writes .

The Orion capsule is specifically designed to keep humans alive during months-long missions, and "will be equipped with advanced environmental control and life support systems designed for the demands of a deep space mission," per NASA . The first step in proving that these systems are viable will be a successful Artemis II mission, which CNN reports will go beyond the moon and "potentially further than any human has traveled in history."

The upcoming mission is only a flyby, and while humans will not land on the moon until Artemis III, operating on the lunar surface requires "systems that can reliably operate far from home, support the needs of human life, and still be light enough to launch," NASA writes. As a result, "exploration of the moon and Mars is intertwined," with the moon providing a platform to test "tools, instruments, and equipment that could be used on Mars ."

When does NASA plan to go to Mars?

That could depend on how fast things develop. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed an order directing NASA to send humans to Mars by 2033, and former President Barack Obama had set a similar goal of a mission in the 2030s, CNET reports.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson pushed that date back slightly, saying the agency's plan "is for humans to walk on Mars by 2040," per CNN . Nelson added that the goal was to apply "what we've learned living and operating on the moon and continue them out into the solar system."

President Biden's budget proposal for the next fiscal year included an allocation of $27 billion to NASA, of which $7.6 billion would be used for deep-space exploration. However, negotiations on a budget deal are ongoing between Congress and the White House, so it remains to be seen how much of these potential NASA funds will actually see the light of day.

Who will go?

That probably won't be decided for years to come. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in 2019 that "we could very well see the first person on Mars be a woman," per Space.com , but no specifics regarding an astronaut class were given. Artemis III is expected to land both the first woman and first person of color on the moon, so it won't come as much of a surprise if a similarly diverse group heads to the red planet. Elon Musk, who has worked alongside NASA via his spaceflight company SpaceX, has said he believes humans will be on Mars by 2029 at the latest, but he hasn't provided any names either.

For now, though, the question of who will be the first person to place their boots on the Martian surface remains a mystery.

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 Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other Hollywood news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.  

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Mars Exploration

For over 60 years, NASA has been in pursuit of answering science's biggest questions – was, or is , Mars a habitable world? 

Mars Exploration Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four broad, overarching goals for Mars exploration.

Mars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots.

From Robots to Humans

Recorded observations of Mars date back more than 4,000 years. Led by our curiosity of the cosmos, NASA has sent a carefully selected international fleet of robotic orbiters, landers and rovers to keep a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery from Mars. The science and technology developed through Mars Exploration missions will enable humans to one day explore the Red Planet in person. Artist's concept depicts astronauts and human habitats on Mars.

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a rover take on human-like features, such as “heads,” “bodies,” and “arms and legs."

A carefully selected international fleet of robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers keeps a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery from Mars.

Mars Missions

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

The Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover is the first step of a journey that would return Mars samples to Earth. (2020-present)

Mars Sample Return

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study.

EXOMars Program

ESA’s (European Space Agency) Exobiology on Mars program consists of two missions: Trace Gas Orbiter and the Rosalind Franklin rover.

InSight was the first space robotic explorer to study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. (2018-2022)

MAVEN is obtaining critical measurements of Mars' atmosphere to help understand dramatic climate change over the planet's history. (2013-present)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MRO studies the planet's atmosphere and terrain from orbit and serves as a key data relay station for other Mars missions. (2005-present)

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover

Curiosity is investigating Mars to determine whether the Red Planet ever was habitable to microbial life. (2011-present)

Mars Phoenix

Phoenix carried a complex suite of instruments to look for signs of water-ice in a region farther north than any previous mission. (2007-2008)

Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity

A pair of Mars rovers that used field geology and atmospheric observations as they looked for signs of ancient water activity. (2003-2010)

Mars Express (ESA)

NASA is contributing advanced radar and radio relay systems to this ESA-ASI mission searching for sub-surface water from Mars orbit. (2003-present)

2001 Mars Odyssey

NASA's longest-lasting spacecraft at Mars is making the first global map of the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface. (2001-present)

Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2

Mars Polar Lander's mission was to dig for water ice near the edge of the south polar cap and deploy two small surface probes, but all spacecraft were lost on arrival. (1999)

Mars Climate Orbiter

Designed to function as an interplanetary weather satellite and a communications relay for Mars Polar Lander, Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on arrival after entering the atmosphere too low. (1999-1999)

Mars Global Surveyor

Mars Global Surveyor studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and interior, discovering repeatable weather patterns, gully formation, new boulder tracks, and recent impact craters. (1996-2006)

Mars Pathfinder

Mars Pathfinder demonstrated a new way to deliver an instrumented lander, and the first robotic rover, to the planet's surface, from which it returned data long past its primary design life. (1996-1997)

Mars Observer

Mars Observer was designed to study the geology, geophysics, and climate of Mars, but contact with the spacecraft was lost shortly before it was set to enter orbit around the planet. (1992-1993)

Vikings 1 & 2

The first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on Mars and return images of the surface, Viking 1 was part of a pair of probes seeking signs of life on Mars. (1975-1982 )

Mars Mariner Missions

NASA's Mariner 9, launched days after Mariner 8, was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet and to orbit Mars, mapping 85% of the surface. (1971-1972)

The Future of Mars

NASA is reimagining the future of Mars exploration, driving new scientific discoveries, and preparing for humans on Mars. NASA’s Mars Exploration Program will focus the next two decades on its science-driven systemic approach on these strategic goals: exploring for potential life, understanding the geology and climate of Mars, and preparation for human exploration.

Discover More Topics From NASA

Solar System Exploration

Asteroids, Comets & Meteors

Want to travel to Mars? Here’s how long the trip could take.

Nuclear engines or not, you're gonna need a lot of PTO to get to the Red Planet.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki | Published Feb 21, 2023 6:00 AM EST

Despite what Star Trek’s warp-speed journeys would have us believe, interplanetary travel is quite the hike. Take getting to Mars. Probes sent to the Red Planet by NASA and other space agencies spend about seven months in space before they arrive at their destination. A trip for humans would probably be longer—likely on the timescale of a few years. 

There are a lot of things that a human crew needs to survive that robots don’t, such as food, water, oxygen, and enough supplies for a return—the weight of which can slow down a spacecraft. With current technology, NASA calculations estimate a crewed mission to Mars and back, plus time on the surface , could take somewhere between two and three years. “Three years we know for sure is feasible,” says Michelle Rucker, who leads NASA’s Mars Architecture Team in the agency’s ​​ Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate .

But NASA aims to shorten that timeline, in part because it would make a Mars mission safer for humans—we still don’t know how well the human body can withstand the environment of space for an extended period. (The record for most consecutive days in space is 437.) The agency is investing in projects to develop new propulsion technologies that might enable more expeditious space travel. 

A crooked path to Mars

In a science-fictional world, a spacecraft would blast off Earth and head directly to Mars. That trajectory would certainly make for a speedier trip. But real space travel is a lot more complicated than going from point A to point B.

“If you had all the thrust you want, you could ignore the fact that there happens to be gravity in our universe and just plow all the way through the solar system,” says Mason Peck , a professor of astronautics at Cornell University who served as NASA’s chief technologist from 2011 to 2013. “But that’s not a scenario that’s possible right now.”

Such a direct trajectory has several challenges. As a spacecraft lifts off Earth, it needs to escape the planet’s gravitational pull, which requires quite a bit of thrust. Then, in space, the force of gravity from Earth, Mars, and the sun pulls the spacecraft in different directions. When it is far enough away, it will settle into orbit around the sun. Bucking that gravity requires fuel-intensive maneuvers.

[Related: Signs of past chemical reactions detected on Mars ]

The second challenge is that the planets do not stay in a fixed place. They orbit the sun, each at its own rate: Mars will not be at the same distance from Earth when the spacecraft launches as the Red Planet will be, say, seven months later. 

As such, the most fuel-efficient route to Mars follows an elliptical orbit around the sun, Peck says. Just one-way, that route covers hundreds of millions of miles and takes over half a year, at best. 

But designing a crewed mission to the Red Planet isn’t just about figuring out how fast a spacecraft can get there and back. It’s about “balance,” says Patrick Chai, in-space propulsion lead for NASA’s Mars Architecture Team . “There are a whole bunch of decisions we have to make in terms of how we optimize for certain things. Where do we trade performance for time?” Chai says. “If you just look at one single metric, you can end up making decisions that are really great for that particular metric, but can be problematic in other areas.”

One major trade-off for speed has to do with how much stuff is on board. With current technology, every maneuver to shorten the trip to Mars requires more fuel. 

If you drive a car, you know that in order to accelerate the vehicle, you step on the gas. The same is true in a spacecraft, except that braking and turning also use fuel. To slow down, for instance, a spacecraft fires its thrusters in the opposite direction to its forward motion.

But there are no gas stations in space. More fuel means more mass on board. And more mass requires more fuel to propel that extra mass through the air… and so on. Trimming a round-trip mission down to two years is when this trade-off starts to become exponentially less efficient, Rucker says. At least, that’s with current technology.

New tech to speed up the trip

NASA would like to be able to significantly reduce that timeline. In 2018, the space agency requested proposals for technological systems that could enable small, uncrewed missions to fly from Earth to Mars in 45 days or less . 

At the time, the proposals didn’t gain much traction. But the challenge inspired engineers to design innovative propulsion systems that don’t yet exist. And now, NASA has begun to fund the development of leading contenders. In particular, the space agency has its eye on nuclear propulsion.

Spacecraft currently rely largely on chemical propulsion. “You basically take an oxidizer and a fuel, combine them, and they combust, and that generates heat. You accelerate that heated product through a nozzle to generate thrust,” explains NASA’s Chai. 

Engineers have known for decades that a nuclear-based system could generate more thrust using a significantly smaller amount of fuel than a chemical rocket. They just haven’t built one yet—though that might be about to change.

One of NASA’s nuclear investment projects aims to integrate a nuclear thermal engine into an experimental spacecraft. The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations , or DRACO, program, is a collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and aims to demonstrate the resulting technology as soon as 2027 .

[Related: Microbes could help us make rocket fuel on Mars ]

The speediest trip to Mars might come from another project, however. This concept, the brainchild of researchers at the University of Florida and supported by a NASA grant, seeks to achieve what Chai calls the “holy grail” of nuclear propulsion: a combination system that pairs nuclear thermal propulsion with an electric kind. 

“We did some preliminary analysis, and it seems like we can get pretty close to [45 days],” says the leader of that project, Ryan Gosse, a professor of practice in the University of Florida’s in-house applied research program, Florida Applied Research in Engineering (FLARE). One caveat: That timeline is for a light payload and no humans on board. However, if the project is successful, the technology could potentially be scaled up in the future to support a crewed mission.

There are two types of nuclear propulsion, and both have their merits. Nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses heat, can generate a lot of thrust quickly from a small amount of fuel. Nuclear electric propulsion, which uses charged particles, is even more fuel-efficient but generates thrust much more slowly.

“While you’re in deep space, the electric propulsion is really great because you have all the time in the world to thrust. The efficiency, the miles per gallon, is far, far superior than the high-thrust,” Chai says. “But when you’re around planets, you want that oomph to get you out of the gravity well.”

The challenge, however, is that both technologies currently require different types of nuclear reactors, says Gosse. And that means two separate systems, which reduces the efficiency of having a nuclear propulsion system. So Gosse and his team are working to develop technology that can use the one system to generate both types of propulsion.

NASA’s Mars architecture team is also working with a bimodal concept that uses a chemical propulsion system to maneuver around planets and solar-powered electric propulsion to do the thrusting in deep space.

“What we are developing is different tools for the toolbox,” says NASA’s Rucker. “One tool isn’t going to be enough to do all of the exploration that we want to do. So we’re working on all of these.”

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Science News Explores

Let’s learn about surviving a trip to mars.

Astronauts would face dangers both getting to and surviving on the Red Planet

A trip to Mars may be many years off. But scientists are already figuring out what it would take to keep people safe and healthy on a journey to the Red Planet.

peepo/E+/Getty Images

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By Maria Temming

July 12, 2022 at 6:30 am

So far, Mars has been the domain of space robots . Over the last 60 years, many spacecraft have flown by, orbited and even landed on the Red Planet. But human explorers could work faster and be more flexible than machines. Not to mention, setting foot on Mars would be a major milestone in space exploration. That’s why the United States, China and other countries want to send people to Mars . But surviving this adventure would be no easy feat.

A Mars mission would be the farthest journey in human history. At an average 225 million kilometers (140 million miles) away, Mars would take at least six months for astronauts to reach. (It would take at least another six months to get back home). In contrast, Apollo astronauts got to the moon in few days.

While space travel is never free of danger, the length of a roundtrip to Mars poses many extra health risks . For one thing, floating in microgravity for long periods weakens bones and muscles. Plus, it allows fluid to build up in the head, putting pressure behind the eyes and causing vision problems. Artificial gravity machines could help.

But then there’s space radiation to worry about. The Earth’s magnetic field protects astronauts near Earth from high-energy cosmic rays . Those charged particles might raise the risk of cancer and other health problems. On longer journeys, though, astronauts would be exposed for months. Taking certain vitamins could reduce the impacts. But scientists are still working out the details.

Mars explorers will have to pack light to lift off from Earth. But they won’t be able to restock on supplies like astronauts on the space station do. Astronauts on the space station practice for this by growing lettuce and other food in space . Engineers are also developing 3-D printing techniques that could let future Mars astronauts build tools as needed. The material for those tools could come from the astronauts themselves. For instance, astronaut pee could feed yeast that churns out ingredients to make plastic .

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Setting up and surviving at a Mars colony would be even more complicated. Since astronauts can’t haul construction materials from Earth, scientists are dreaming up ways for astronauts to use materials on Mars . Long-term visitors would also need plenty of oxygen to breathe. A device on NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently laying the groundwork for a future Mars oxygen factory. The device pries oxygen off molecules of carbon dioxide , the main gas in Mars’ atmosphere.

Planning for a trip to Mars isn’t just about protecting astronauts. It’s also about protecting Mars from astronauts. Humans are teeming with microbes. And spreading those microbes could compromise the search for life on Mars. As a result, a key part of responsible space exploration is making sure Earth germs don’t infect other planets .

Want to know more? We’ve got some stories to get you started:

Preparing for that trip to Mars Space farming techniques, next-generation rockets and 3-D printing could all factor into a successful trip to Mars. (2/22/2018) Readability: 6.6

Surviving Mars missions will take planning and lots of innovation En route to Mars, astronauts will face health risks from microgravity, radiation and more. (10/22/2020) Readability: 8.0

How a year in space affected Scott Kelly’s health A comparison to his twin looks at how long-term spaceflight changes the human body. (5/17/2019) Readability: 7.3

Explore more

Scientists Say: Microgravity

Explainer: Gravity and microgravity

Let’s learn about Mars

Let’s learn about gravity

The ultimate getaway — visiting the Red Planet

Analyze This: Insect shells could help builders on Mars

En route to Mars, astronauts may face big health risks

The Perseverance rover split CO2 on Mars to make breathable air

What to wear on Mars

Want a tougher space suit? Just add liquid

Here’s how a new sleeping bag could protect astronauts’ eyesight

Space travel may harm health by damaging cells’ powerhouses

Staying grounded in space requires artificial gravity

Human waste could power plastic-making in space

Keeping space missions from infecting Earth and other worlds

Design your own sustainable Mars colony with guidance from NASA. Take inspiration from communities on Earth and learn about the limitations of the Martian environment to build a model of your ideal human base on the Red Planet. Or, follow NASA’s instructions to build your own model Mars’ rover .  

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Could humans really survive a journey to Mars?

The journey to put human feet on Mars is going to be a long one, so what might be the effects on the human body and mind as astronauts travel to the Red Planet?

Jasmin Fox-Skelly

With NASA's Artemis Mission beginning to ramp up, thoughts turn to humans' first journey to Mars, but is such a long journey to such an inhospitable world really realistic?

A journey to Mars and back would take three years, yet the longest time anyone has ever spent in space during a single trip is 437 days; a record set by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov.

In February 2024, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononeko broke the record for most cumulative time spent in space: 878 non-continuous days on the International Space Station .

Human bodies have evolved to live on Earth with its unique atmosphere and gravity, so how would a trip to Mars affect our circulatory system, our brains and our bones?

Effects of space on the human body

Outer space is an inhospitable place. Astronauts are bombarded with carcinogenic radiation, confined to cramped spaces and must receive their nourishment from a restricted diet.

An average stay on the Space Station is about six months.

Studies carried out on ISS astronauts show this relatively short time frame doesn’t damage the human body too much, but little is known about the long-term effects of space.

In March 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth after 340 days on the ISS .

Tests were conducted to determine how much their bodies had changed during the One-Year Mission.

Speaking on board the station shortly before he returned, Kelly said: "Physically I feel pretty good, although when we look at the data back home there might be effects that are more significant than how I feel.

"I could do another 100 days, or another year if it made sense, but I’m looking forward to going home."

As challenging as life on the ISS can be, the journey to Mars would be even more so.

Astronauts undertaking such a journey would be more isolated and wouldn’t be able to regularly communicate with people back on Earth.

They would also have to cope with three specific challenges: gravity, radiation and confinement.

3 challenges of a journey to Mars

A mission to Mars would involve three gravity fields. Firstly, on the six-month journey to Mars astronauts would be weightless.

Then, upon arrival they’d have to live and work in gravity about a third as strong as Earth’s.

Finally, they’d have to readjust to Earth’s gravity on their return.

Switching and changing between gravity fields is a tricky business. Astronauts lose their balance and spatial orientation, suffer from motion sickness and struggle with head-eye and hand-eye coordination.

Going through all this while trying to land a spacecraft on Mars would be very dangerous indeed.

But sickness and confusion aren’t the only risks. Living in zero gravity means the body’s muscles have very little work to do, making them weaken and deteriorate over time.

It causes loss in fitness as the heart and lungs can’t pump oxygen around the body as well. Bone density drops at over one per cent a month, putting astronauts at a greater risk of developing osteoporosis.

Absence of gravity also means that the fluids in the human body don’t flow as they’re supposed to and instead drain upwards towards the head, putting pressure on the eyes and affecting vision.

Confinement

The importance of human psychology to a mission can’t be underestimated. During the Mars500 experiment in 2010, six men spent 520 days sealed inside a small windowless chamber at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow.

The idea was to simulate a mission to Mars in isolation without fresh food, fresh air or sunlight. By the end of the study most of the crew members were suffering from insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Spending so much time crammed into small spaces with other people can lead to boredom, stress, anxiety and depression.

According to Kelly, he spent the majority of his year aboard the ISS living and exercising in a “box the size of a phone booth”. This space would be even smaller on a mission to Mars.

NASA only selects astronauts who are extremely mentally resilient, easygoing and have good social skills, but research shows that the more confined and isolated humans are, the more likely they are to develop behavioural and psychiatric disorders.

The lack of a day and night cycle can also mess with the body’s natural rhythm, leading to lack of sleep.

Along with fatigue from a gruelling work schedule, this could all add to a breakdown in relationships among crew, potentially leading to mission failure.

Also, microbes that live in the human body are more easily transferred between people in closed spaces.

To add to this, cramped conditions lead to elevated stress hormones that lower the body’s immune defences, making it more susceptible to those same bacteria.

Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from harmful UV and ionising radiation. In space, the dangers of solar radiation are increased, damaging human cells and mutating DNA, leading to cancer.

It can also affect the body’s central nervous system and cause nausea, vomiting, anorexia and fatigue.

On the ISS, astronauts have to cope with radiation 10 times higher than on Earth, but because the station lies within Earth’s magnetic field , it’s much safer than outer space.

The Apollo missions relied on the fact that astronauts were only outside Earth’s protective magnetosphere for about 10 days.

Astronauts travelling to Mars, however, would encounter radiation levels higher than humans have ever experienced, and be exposed to them for much longer.

To protect them, the spacecraft would either have to be much bulkier, making launches expensive and difficult, or be made of more efficient shielding materials.

NASA is researching structures called hydrogenated boron nitride nanotubes, which could provide sufficient protection.

As radiation levels on the ISS are still comparatively low, astronauts wear dosimeters to track their exposure.

However, any mission to Mars would have to take the greater risk posed by prolonged exposure to radiation into account.

But what more can NASA do to protect long-duration astronauts from the radiation?

“We don’t yet know what the most effective countermeasures against radiation will be,” explains Mark Shelhamer, former chief scientist at NASA’s Human Research Program.

“But antioxidants and pharmaceuticals that repair cellular damage are among the things we’re looking at,” says Shelhamer.

As for the other hazards outlined here, the best countermeasures currently available are exercise and diet.

“Astronauts exercise about two hours a day on the ISS,” says Shelhamer. “It’s very effective at countering muscle and bone loss, and degradation of cardiovascular function. It’s also a great psychological boost.

"And it’s essential to ensure the crew get the proper nutrients in a food supply that’s not as varied or fresh as on Earth.”

One thing is clear: while living and working on Mars may prove an extreme challenge, much work is yet to be done if we are to provide a safe route for astronauts journeying to the Red Planet.

Spending long periods in space

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 days on board the ISS as part of NASA’s Human Research Program, which aims to test how the conditions of space affect the human body.

Both men regularly collected samples of blood, urine and saliva for later analysis.

They underwent tests to measure their aerobic capacity, their ability to make fine movements with their hands and fingers, and several aspects of their cognitive performance.

Following their return, scientists continue to measure these properties to see how Kelly and Kornienko’s time in space affects their readjustment back on Earth.

This research is especially important for missions to destinations such as Mars, where the astronauts must land and then carry out strenuous work, without assistance from support staff as they have on Earth.

This article originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine .

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Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots.

All About Mars

Small World

Mars is 53% smaller than Earth.

Fourth Rock

Mars is 1.52 AU from the Sun. Earth = 1.

A Martian day is a little longer than Earth's; a Mars year is almost two Earth years.

Rocky Planet

Mars' surface has been altered by volcanoes, impacts, winds, and crustal movement.

Bring a Spacesuit

Mars' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, argon, and nitrogen.

Phobos and Deimos are small compared to the planet.

Mars has no rings.

Many Missions

The first success was NASA's Mariner 4 flyby in 1965,

The Search for Life

Missions are determining Mars' past and future potential for life.

The Red Planet

Iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil and atmosphere to look red.

Mars Overview

Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. It’s dry, rocky, and bitter cold. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars, is one of Earth's two closest planetary neighbors (Venus is the other). Mars is one of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky – it looks like a bright red point of light.

Despite being inhospitable to humans, robotic explorers – like NASA's Perseverance rover – are serving as pathfinders to eventually get humans to the surface of the Red Planet.

Why Do We Go?

Mars is one of the most explored bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where we've sent rovers to explore the alien landscape. NASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago.

Mars Relay Network

How we explore.

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

The Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover is the first step of a proposed roundtrip journey to return Mars samples to Earth.

Mars Sample Return

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study. 

Mars Curiosity Rover (Mars Science Laboratory)

Curiosity is investigating Mars to determine whether the Red Planet was ever habitable to microbial life.

Mars Resources

View the one-stop shop for all Mars iconic images, videos, and more!

News & Features

NASA Technology Grants to Advance Moon to Mars Space Exploration

NASA Selects Commercial Service Studies to Enable Mars Robotic Science

NASA Scientists Gear Up for Solar Storms at Mars

Major Martian Milestones

Why is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas

Beyond the Moon

Humans to mars.

Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth.

Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know in the solar system where life may have existed. What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet.

Discover More Topics From NASA

Why we explore Mars—and what decades of missions have revealed

In the 1960s, humans set out to discover what the red planet has to teach us. Now, NASA is hoping to land the first humans on Mars by the 2030s.

Mars has captivated humans since we first set eyes on it as a star-like object in the night sky. Early on, its reddish hue set the planet apart from its shimmering siblings, each compelling in its own way, but none other tracing a ruddy arc through Earth’s heavens. Then, in the late 1800s, telescopes first revealed a surface full of intriguing features—patterns and landforms that scientists at first wrongly ascribed to a bustling Martian civilization. Now, we know there are no artificial constructions on Mars. But we’ve also learned that, until 3.5 billion years ago, the dry, toxic planet we see today might have once been as habitable as Earth.

Since the 1960s, humans have set out to discover what Mars can teach us about how planets grow and evolve, and whether it has ever hosted alien life. So far, only uncrewed spacecraft have made the trip to the red planet, but that could soon change. NASA is hoping to land the first humans on Mars by the 2030s—and several new missions are launching before then to push exploration forward. Here’s a look at why these journeys are so important—and what humans have learned about Mars through decades of exploration.

Why explore Mars

Over the last century, everything we’ve learned about Mars suggests that the planet was once quite capable of hosting ecosystems—and that it might still be an incubator for microbial life today.

Mars is the fourth rock from the sun, just after Earth. It is just a smidge more than half of Earth’s size , with gravity only 38 percent that of Earth’s. It takes longer than Earth to complete a full orbit around the sun—but it rotates around its axis at roughly the same speed. That’s why one year on Mars lasts for 687 Earth days , while a day on Mars is just 40 minutes longer than on Earth.

Despite its smaller size, the planet’s land area is also roughly equivalent to the surface area of Earth’s continents —meaning that, at least in theory, Mars has the same amount of habitable real estate. Unfortunately, the planet is now wrapped in a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and cannot support earthly life-forms. Methane gas also periodically appears in the atmosphere of this desiccated world, and the soil contains compounds that would be toxic to life as we know it. Although water does exist on Mars, it’s locked into the planet’s icy polar caps and buried, perhaps in abundance, beneath the Martian surface .

Today, when scientists scrutinize the Martian surface, they see features that are unquestionably the work of ancient, flowing liquids : branching streams, river valleys, basins, and deltas. Those observations suggest that the planet may have once had a vast ocean covering its northern hemisphere. Elsewhere, rainstorms soaked the landscape, lakes pooled, and rivers gushed, carving troughs into the terrain. It was also likely wrapped in a thick atmosphere capable of maintaining liquid water at Martian temperatures and pressures.

For Hungry Minds

Somewhere during Martian evolution, the planet went through a dramatic transformation, and a world that was once rather Earthlike became the dusty, dry husk we see today. The question now is, what happened? Where did those liquids go, and what happened to the Martian atmosphere ?

Exploring Mars helps scientists learn about momentous shifts in climate that can fundamentally alter planets. It also lets us look for biosignatures, signs that might reveal whether life was abundant in the planet’s past—and if it still exists on Mars today. And, the more we learn about Mars, the better equipped we’ll be to try to make a living there, someday in the future.

Past missions, major discoveries

Since the 1960s, humans have sent dozens of spacecraft to study Mars . Early missions were flybys, with spacecraft furiously snapping photos as they zoomed past. Later, probes pulled into orbit around Mars; more recently, landers and rovers have touched down on the surface.

But sending a spacecraft to Mars is hard , and landing on the planet is even harder. The thin Martian atmosphere makes descent tricky, and more than 60 percent of landing attempts have failed. So far, four space agencies—NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)—have put spacecraft in Martian orbit. With eight successful landings, the United States is the only country that has operated a craft on the planet’s surface. The United Arab Emirates and China might join that club if their recently launched Hope and Tianwen-1 missions reach the red planet safely in February 2021.

Early highlights of Mars missions include NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft , which swung by Mars in July 1965 and captured the first close-up images of this foreign world. In 1971, the Soviet space program sent the first spacecraft into Martian orbit. Called Mars 3 , it returned roughly eight months of observations about the planet's topography, atmosphere, weather, and geology. The mission also sent a lander to the surface, but it returned data for only about 20 seconds before going quiet.

Over the subsequent decades, orbiters returned far more detailed data on the planet's atmosphere and surface, and finally dispelled the notion, widely held by scientists since the late 1800s, that Martian canals were built by an alien civilization. They also revealed some truly dramatic features: the small world boasts the largest volcanoes in the solar system, and one of the largest canyons yet discovered—a chasm as long as the continental United States. Dust storms regularly sweep over its plains, and winds whip up localized dust devils.

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In 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 became the first spacecraft to successfully operate on the planet’s surface, returning photos until 1982. They also conducted biological experiments on Martian soil that were designed to uncover signs of life in space—but their results were inconclusive , and scientists still disagree over how to interpret the data.

NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission , launched in 1996, put the first free-moving rover—called Sojourner—on the planet. Its successors include the rovers Spirit and Opportunity , which explored the planet for far longer than expected and returned more than 100,000 images before dust storms obliterated their solar panels in the 2010s.

Now, two NASA spacecraft are active on the Martian surface: InSight is probing the planet’s interior and it has already revealed that “ marsquakes” routinely rattle its surface . The Curiosity rover , launched in 2012, is also still wheeling around in Gale Crater, taking otherworldly selfies, and studying the rocks and sediments deposited in the crater’s ancient lakebed.

Several spacecraft are transmitting data from orbit: NASA’s MAVEN orbiter , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , and Mars Odyssey ; ESA’s Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter ; and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission .

Together, these missions have shown scientists that Mars is an active planet that is rich in the ingredients needed for life as we know it—water, organic carbon , and an energy source. Now, the question is: Did life ever evolve on Mars , and is it still around?

Future of Mars exploration

Once every 26 months , Earth and Mars are aligned in a way that minimizes travel times and expense , enabling spacecraft to make the interplanetary journey in roughly half a year. Earth’s space agencies tend to launch probes during these conjunctions, the most recent of which happens in the summer of 2020. Three countries are sending spacecraft to Mars during this window: The United Arab Emirates, which launched its Hope spacecraft on July 20 and will orbit Mars to study its atmosphere and weather patterns; China, which launched its Tianwen-1 on July 23 , and the United States, currently targeting July 30 for the launch of its Perseverance rover .

Perseverance is a large, six-wheeled rover equipped with a suite of sophisticated instruments. Its target is Jezero Crater, site of an ancient river delta , and a likely location for ancient life-forms to have thrived. Once on the surface, Perseverance will study Martian climate and weather, test technologies that could help humans survive on Mars, and collect samples from dozens of rocks that will eventually be brought to Earth. Among its goals is helping to determine whether Mars was—or is—inhabited, making it a true life-finding Mars mission.

All of the robotic activity is, of course, laying the groundwork for sending humans to the next world over. NASA is targeting the 2030s as a reasonable timeframe for setting the first boots on Mars, and is developing a space capsule, Orion , that will be able to ferry humans to the moon and beyond.

Private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX are also getting into the Mars game. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said that humanity must become “ a multiplanetary species ” if we are to survive, and he is working on a plan that could see a million people living on Mars before the end of this century.

Soon, in one way or another, humanity may finally know whether our neighboring planet ever hosted life—and whether there’s a future for our species on another world.

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Science News

What will astronauts need to survive the dangerous journey to mars.

When space is tight, what should go into the medical bag?

Scientists are studying how to protect astronauts on missions to Mars, when there is minimal room for medical gear. Here, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins on the International Space Station inspects a compact habitat that can be expanded into a living or work space.

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By Maria Temming

July 15, 2020 at 12:00 pm

On movie missions to Mars, getting there is the easy part. The Martian ’s Mark Watney was fine until a dust storm left him fending for himself. Douglas Quaid’s jaunt to the Red Planet in Total Recall was smooth sailing until he came under fire at Martian customs and immigration.

But in real life, just getting to Mars and back will be rife with dangers that have nothing to do with extreme weather or armed gunmen.

“The mission to Mars is likely going to be four to six individuals [living] together in a can the size of a Winnebago for three years,” says Leticia Vega, associate chief scientist for the NASA Human Research Program in Houston. Time on the planet will be sandwiched between a six- to nine-month journey there plus the same long trip back.

Once outside of Earth’s protective gravitational and magnetic fields, microgravity and radiation become big worries. Microgravity allows fluid buildup in the head, which can cause vision problems, and adventurers cruising through interplanetary space will be continually pelted with high-energy charged particles that zip right through the metal belly of a spacecraft. Researchers don’t know just how harmful that radiation is, but lab experiments suggest it could raise astronauts’ risk of cancer and other diseases.

The length of the mission brings its own dangers. “The moon was like a camping trip when you think about going to Mars,” says Erik Antonsen, an emergency medicine physician and aerospace engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Setting aside the social and psychological problems that could arise among people trapped together inside an interplanetary mobile home ( SN: 11/29/14, p. 22 ), three years offers a lot more time and opportunity to get sick or injured than a dayslong Apollo mission. And Mars is about 600 times farther from Earth than the moon is. Even light-speed communications will take about 20 minutes to reach Earth from Mars. Phoning Houston for help in an emergency is not an option.

“The reality is, when we do the first missions to Mars, there’s a high likelihood that somebody may die,” Antonsen says. “If someone goes out and they get an abrasion on their eyeball and it’s not responding to whatever [is] on the vehicle, they’re coming back one-eyed Jack.”

Despite those dangers, the United States, Russia, China and other nations have all voiced their intentions to send people to the Red Planet. NASA is gunning for a mission to Mars in the 2030s. With that deadline in mind, researchers are developing a suite of medical devices and medications to bring on a trip to Mars.

The items on this packing list are in the very early stages of development, and in some cases, still pretty impractical and unproven. Universal diagnostic wands are a distant dream. But researchers are devising artificial-gravity suits, anti-radiation medications and miniature medical tools that scientists hope will be ready in about a decade to keep the first travelers to Mars safe and healthy.

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Faking gravity

For something that looks so relaxing, floating in microgravity is surprisingly bad for you. When the body doesn’t have to pull its own weight, muscles and bones weaken. This was a big problem in the early days of spaceflight. When the Soviet Soyuz 9 crew returned from a record 18 days in space in June 1970, one cosmonaut was so weak that he couldn’t carry his own helmet when he stepped out of the landing capsule ( SN: 6/27/70, p. 615 ). Today, astronauts on the International Space Station keep up their strength by exercising for a couple of hours each day. But other problems with life in microgravity remain unsolved.

In space, bodily fluids that Earth’s gravity normally keeps in the lower body drift toward the head, increasing intracranial pressure. “If you were to sit down in a chair and put your head between your knees … that’s a bit what it feels like,” says NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn, who completed a five-month stint on the space station in 2013.

Researchers suspect that constant elevated pressure behind the eyes is to blame for vision problems, such as farsightedness, that about half of astronauts develop in space. “I had a harder time reading the keys on the laptop,” Marshburn recalls.

Weightlessness also confuses the gravity-­sensing vestibular organs in the inner ear that play a role in balance and motor control. Upon returning to Earth, “I could walk in a straight line pretty easily by the end of that day, but it took me a few days before I could start to walk around a corner” without running into the wall, Marshburn says.

To make sure astronauts can walk straight and see what they’re doing on Mars, a spaceship could be outfitted with artificial-gravity machines. One such machine is a lower body negative pressure, or LBNP, chamber. The device applies vacuum pressure to the lower half of the body while a person is sealed in from the waist down. The vacuum re-creates the downward pull of gravity, planting the person’s feet firmly on the floor of the chamber and drawing bodily fluids toward the legs.

In one experiment, 10 volunteers who already had medical devices implanted to measure intracranial pressure sealed their lower bodies inside an LBNP chamber. Participants had to lie down for the experiment to bring their intracranial pressure closer to what it would be like in space. When someone on Earth goes from standing to lying down, their intracranial pressure rises from around 0 millimeters of mercury to about 15 mmHg — closer to what astronauts are thought to experience in space. As the researchers slowly increased the device’s vacuum pressure, participants’ average intracranial pressure dropped from 15 to 9.4 mmHg , the researchers reported in 2019 in the Journal of Physiology .

“We really don’t know right now how much time [in LBNP] we need to protect the body” from the harmful effects of fluid shifts in space, says Alan Hargens, a space physiologist at the University of California, San Diego. But in case LBNP becomes a significant part of the day, Hargens’ team built a prototype LBNP suit that can be worn during daily activity. The suit consists of a pair of overalls with built-in shoes and a seal around the waist. Vacuum pressure pulls the wearer down onto the shoe soles. “These lower body negative pressure devices are an early form of artificial gravity,” Hargens says. Such devices may be easier to send into space than alternatives being tested, such as centrifuges.

A centrifuge simulates gravity through centri­fugal force — the effect that keeps water in the bottom of a bucket when you swing it over your head. A centrifuge designed to help astronauts in microgravity looks sort of like a carousel, but with beds instead of ponies. The rider lies on a bed, head pointing toward the center of the carousel, which spins to exert a horizontal centri­fugal force out toward the feet that’s as strong as the downward pull of gravity. A room-sized centrifuge would be a lot harder to launch in a spaceship than an LBNP suit. But some researchers think the whole-body-centrifuge experience may combat microgravity issues that LBNP doesn’t, such as the inner ear problems.

To investigate the effects of a centrifuge on sensorimotor control, Rachael Seidler, a motor control researcher at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues kept 24 volunteers in bed for 60 days to mimic life in microgravity. Sixteen of the participants spun in a centrifuge for a total of 30 minutes each day, while the other eight got no centrifugation. Before and after bed rest, participants were tested on their balance and were put through an obstacle course. “We’ve just had a very preliminary peek” at the data, Seidler says, but “it does look like the artificial gravity was helpful” for motor control.

Bracing for radiation

Life in microgravity may be a problem for a Mars crew, but at least it’s a familiar challenge to astronauts. Chronic exposure to deep space radiation, on the other hand, is a hazard that no space traveler has faced before.

The solar system is awash in charged particles called galactic cosmic rays that travel at nearly the speed of light. These particles tear through metal like it’s tissue paper and can kill cells or create mutations in the DNA within. Astronauts on the space station, like folks on Earth, are largely protected from these tiny wrecking balls by Earth’s magnetic field. But a Mars-bound crew will be totally exposed. En route to the Red Planet, astronauts are expected to receive almost two millisieverts of radiation daily — roughly equal to getting a full-body CT scan every six days.

The only people ever fully immersed in deep space radiation were those who went to the moon, but they were exposed for less than two weeks. On a Mars mission, “we really don’t know exactly what’s going to happen to humans when they get these types of exposures,” says Emmanuel Urquieta, a space medicine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. But judging by lab animal and cell experiments, this radiation won’t be giving astronauts any superpowers.

In tests on animals and in human tissue, beams of particles designed to mimic space radiation degrade heart and blood vessel tissue, suggesting a Mars crew may be at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases , according to a 2018 report in Nature Reviews Cardiology . Similarly, observations of rodents exposed to radiation suggest that space radiation impairs cognitive function , researchers reported in a review article in the May 2019 Life Sciences in Space Research .

“There’s also a good amount of data on radiation’s ability to induce cancer” in the lungs, liver and brain, says Peter Guida, a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., who studies the biological effects of radiation.

Scary radiation effects seen in lab animals or cell cultures should be taken with a grain of salt. A mouse is not a person, and brain cells in a dish do not make a brain. Also, animals and cells typically get the entire Mars mission–level dose of radiation in a single session or in a series of radiation exposures over weeks or months, which is not the same thing as getting constant, low-level exposure. But the warning signs from these experiments are worrying enough that researchers are testing various anti-radiation medications.

“The biggest and most promising field for counter­measure development is antioxidants,” Guida says. High-energy charged particles can cause damage by splintering water molecules in the body into toxic compounds called reactive oxygen species. Priming the body with anti­oxidants could help neutralize some of those reactive oxygen species and curb their effects. Options include vitamins A and E, as well as selenomethionine, an ingredient found in some dietary supplements. “All these have shown at various levels to decrease the negative effects of radiation,” he says.

Medical problems astronauts are at relatively high risk of developing while in space:

• Rashes/skin irritations
• Motion sickness
• Blood clots
• Nasal congestion
• Kidney stones
• Farsightedness

Even harnessing the natural antioxidant powers of berries might help. In one experiment, rats fed food laced with freeze-dried blueberry powder for four weeks seemed to perform slightly better on a memory test after exposure to high-energy charged particles than rats fed normal chow before exposure. In the test, the rats were shown two objects: one they had seen before radiation exposure and one they had not. Blueberry-fed rats spent almost 70 percent of their time exploring the new object, as expected of animals that recognized the old object. But the other rats spent about half their time exploring each object, suggesting that they’d forgotten the object they’d seen before , researchers reported in 2017 in Life Sciences in Space Research .

Antioxidants, on their own, may not be enough protection, says Marjan Boerma, a radiation biologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Boerma and colleagues are testing whether aspirin and other anti-inflammatories, including a form of vitamin E called gamma-tocotrienol, can help reduce cell damage from high-energy particles. It may take a medley of pharmaceuticals — or perhaps a carefully blended smoothie. Scientists are still far from hammering out the exact ingredients of that anti-radiation regimen, she says.

Astronaut, heal thyself

Pulling shifts in artificial gravity and swallowing antioxidants may become part of an astronaut’s daily routine. But Mars visitors will also have to deal with any unexpected illnesses and injuries without mission control to talk them through an emergency.

A Mars crew may include a physician. “But that person could also get sick,” Urquieta says, “and that physician is not going to be board-­certified in 10 different specialties.” Ideally, the Mars spaceship would be equipped with artificial intelligence that could consider an astronaut’s symptoms, recommend medical tests, make diagnoses and assign treatments. But a reliable “Dr. AI” is nowhere close to reality.

Measuring up

About 30 nonphysicians learned first aid from a software system designed to help astronauts. Months after training, the novices did pretty well, except for inserting a breathing tube and an IV.

Source: D. Ebert et al /NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop 2020

Right now, the most sophisticated symptom checkers are tools like VisualDx, diagnostic software used by health care workers in hospitals and clinics. The user answers questions about a patient, such as symptoms and demographic features, to winnow down possible diagnoses. For skin conditions, VisualDx can also analyze photos of a patient’s skin; it’s now being expanded to help users assess ultrasound scans.

Art Papier, a dermatologist and chief executive officer at VisualDx, and colleagues designed a version of the system for use in deep space that works on a laptop without internet. The software doesn’t have to account for every possible diagnosis, like infectious diseases from the tropics. Instead, the focus is on medical conditions that astronauts have a fairly high chance of developing, like rashes or kidney stones.

To help walk astronauts through first aid and medical exams, spaceflight physiologist and space medicine scientist Douglas Ebert of KBR, Inc. in Houston and colleagues are developing a tool called the Autonomous Medical Officer Support, or AMOS, system. An early version of the software uses pictures and videos to teach novices how to perform an eye exam, for example, or insert a breathing tube.

The researchers tested an AMOS prototype with about 30 nonphysicians, who learned how to perform several medical procedures. Those people came back three to nine months later to do the procedures again, using the software for guidance as necessary, to mimic how an astronaut would use AMOS for preflight training and in-the-moment support during an emergency.

Around 80 percent of participants accurately performed eye exams and ultrasounds and about 70 percent correctly inserted an IV. When it came to a tougher task — inserting a breathing tube — just about half pulled it off, Ebert and colleagues reported in January in Galveston, Texas, at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop. In April, astronauts on board the space station successfully used the software to perform kidney and bladder ultrasound scans without help from ground control.

When performing medical exams, astronauts won’t have the starship Enterprise ’s sick bay at their disposal. They’ll need miniature medical devices that fit on the spacecraft.

For medical imaging, space medicine researchers have their eyes on a new ultrasound device called the Butterfly iQ that replaces the variety of transducers usually needed to image different body parts with a single probe the size of an electric razor. Standard ultrasound machinery is around 15 times heavier than the Butterfly iQ, which displays images on a mobile app.

The company 1Drop Diagnostics, which is developing credit card–sized chips to detect chemical markers of different diseases in blood samples from a finger prick, is working on portable blood tests for astronauts.

The medical kit that astronauts use to patch each other up will have to be lightweight and compact. To decide what goes in a spaceship first aid kit, researchers use NASA’s Integrated Medical Model, which forecasts which health problems the astronauts on a particular mission are most likely to have.

Researchers plug in mission details, like where the crew is headed and astronauts’ genders and preexisting conditions. The model then runs thousands of mission simulations to gauge the risks of that specific crew having anything from constipation to a heart attack so that planners can prioritize medical kit supplies.

Ebert and colleagues have already used this system to build a preliminary first aid packing list for a crewed lunar flyby mission that NASA has planned for 2022. For this three-week trip, the first aid kit is pretty simple: medication for back pain, motion sickness and the like.

Packing for Mars is going to be a whole new ball game, Ebert says. But researchers still have at least a decade to shrink their equipment down to size and figure out what mix of medical supplies will give Mars astronauts the best chance of surviving their epic voyage.

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The radiation showstopper for Mars exploration

An astronaut on a mission to Mars could receive radiation doses up to 700 times higher than on our planet – a major showstopper for the safe exploration of our Solar System. A team of European experts is working with ESA to protect the health of future crews on their way to the Moon and beyond.

Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere protect us from the constant bombardment of galactic cosmic rays – energetic particles that travel at close to the speed of light and penetrate the human body.

Cosmic radiation could increase cancer risks during long duration missions. Damage to the human body extends to the brain, heart and the central nervous system and sets the stage for degenerative diseases. A higher percentage of early-onset cataracts have been reported in astronauts.

“One day in space is equivalent to the radiation received on Earth for a whole year,” explains physicist Marco Durante, who studies cosmic radiation on Earth.

Marco points out that most of the changes in the astronauts’ gene expression are believed to be a result of radiation exposure, according to the recent NASA’s Twins study . This research showed DNA damage in astronaut Scott Kelly compared to his identical twin and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth.

A second source of space radiation comes from unpredictable solar particle events that deliver high doses of radiation in a short period of time, leading to ‘radiation sickness’ unless protective measures are taken.

Europe’s radiation fight club

“The real problem is the large uncertainty surrounding the risks. We don’t understand space radiation very well and the long-lasting effects are unknown,” explains Marco who is also part of an ESA team formed to investigate radiation.

Since 2015, this forum of experts provides advice from areas such as space science, biology, epidemiology, medicine and physics to improve protection from space radiation.

“Space radiation research is an area that crosses the entire life and physical sciences area with important applications on Earth. Research in this area will remain of high priority for ESA,” says Jennifer Ngo-Anh, ESA’s team leader human research, biology and physical sciences.

While astronauts are not considered radiation workers in all countries, they are exposed to 200 times more radiation on the International Space Station than an airline pilot or a radiology nurse.

Radiation is in the Space Station’s spotlight every day. A console at NASA’s mission control in Houston, Texas, is constantly showing space weather information.

If a burst of space radiation is detected, teams on Earth can abort a spacewalk, instruct astronauts to move to more shielded areas and even change the altitude of the Station to minimise impact.

One of the main recommendations of the topical team is to develop a risk model with the radiation dose limits for crews travelling beyond the International Space Station.

ESA’s flight surgeon and radiologist Ulrich Straube believes that the model should “provide information on the risks that could cause cancer and non-cancer health issues for astronauts going to the Moon and Mars in agreement with all space agencies.”

Recent data from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter showed that on a six-month journey to the Red Planet an astronaut could be exposed to at least 60% of the total radiation dose limit recommended for their entire career.

“As it stands today, we can’t go to Mars due to radiation. It would be impossible to meet acceptable dose limits,” reminds Marco.

Measure to protect

ESA has teamed up with five particle accelerators in Europe that can recreate cosmic radiation by ‘shooting’ atomic particles to speeds approaching the speed of light. Researchers have been bombarding biological cells and materials with radiation to understand how to best protect astronauts.

“The research is paying off. Lithium is standing out as a promising material for shielding in planetary missions,” says Marco.

ESA has been measuring the radiation dose on the International Space Station for seven years with passive radiation detectors in the DOSIS 3D experiment . ESA astronauts Andreas Mogensen and Thomas Pesquet wore a new mobile dosimeter during their missions that gave them a real-time snapshot of their exposure.

The same European team behind this research will provide radiation detectors to monitor the skin and organ doses of the two phantoms traveling to the Moon onboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft. 

ESA has demonstrated expertise in studying Mars from orbit, now we are looking to secure a safe landing, to rove across the surface and to drill underground to search for evidence of life. Our orbiters are already in place to provide data relay services for surface missions. The next logical step is to bring samples back to Earth, to provide access to Mars for scientists globally, and to better prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet. This week we’re highlighting ESA’s contribution to Mars exploration as we ramp up to the launch of our second ExoMars mission, and look beyond to completing a Mars Sample Return mission. Join the conversation online with the hashtag #ExploreFarther

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Trips to Mars in 39 Days

[/caption] Using traditional chemical rockets, a trip to Mars – at quickest — lasts 6 months. But a new rocket tested successfully last week could potentially cut down travel time to the Red Planet to just 39 days. The Ad Astra Rocket Company tested a plasma rocket called the VASIMR VX-200 engine, which ran at 201 kilowatts in a vacuum chamber, passing the 200-kilowatt mark for the first time. “It’s the most powerful plasma rocket in the world right now,” says Franklin Chang-Diaz, former NASA astronaut and CEO of Ad Astra. The company has also signed an agreement with NASA to test a 200-kilowatt VASIMR engine on the International Space Station in 2013. The tests on the ISS would provide periodic boosts to the space station, which gradually drops in altitude due to atmospheric drag. ISS boosts are currently provided by spacecraft with conventional thrusters, which consume about 7.5 tons of propellant per year. By cutting this amount down to 0.3 tons, Chang-Diaz estimates that VASIMR could save NASA millions of dollars per year.

Plasma, or ion engines uses radio waves to heat gases such as hydrogen, argon, and neon, creating hot plasma. Magnetic fields force the charged plasma out the back of the engine, producing thrust in the opposite direction.

They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can’t break free of the Earth’s gravity on their own. Plus, ion engines only work in a vacuum. But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like wind pushing a sailboat, accelerating gradually until the vehicle is moving faster than chemical rockets. They only produce a pound of thrust, but in space that’s enough to move 2 tons of cargo.

Due to the high velocity that is possible, less fuel is required than in conventional engines.

Dawn’s engines have a specific impulse of 3100 seconds and a thrust of 90 mNewtons. A chemical rocket on a spacecraft might have a thrust of up to 500 Newtons, and a specific impulse of less than 1000 seconds.

The VASIMR has 4 Newtons of thrust (0.9 pounds) with a specific impulse of about 6,000 seconds.

The VASIMR has two additional important features that distinguish it from other plasma propulsion systems. It has the ability to vary the exhaust parameters (thrust and specific impulse) in order to optimally match mission requirements. This results in the lowest trip time with the highest payload for a given fuel load.

In addition, VASIMR has no physical electrodes in contact with the plasma, prolonging the engine’s lifetime and enabling a higher power density than in other designs.

VASIMR could also be adapted to handle the high payloads of robotic missions, and propel cargo missions with a very large payload mass fraction. Trip times and payload mass are major limitations of conventional and nuclear thermal rockets because of their inherently low specific impulse.

Chang-Diaz has been working on the development of the VASIMR concept since 1979, before founding Ad Astra in 2005 to further develop the project.

Source: PhysOrg

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15 Replies to “Trips to Mars in 39 Days”

“in space ion engines have a velocity ten times that of chemical rockets”

Exhaust velocity, I guess.

“the VASIMR has two additional important features that distinguish it from other plasma propulsion systems. It has the ability to vary the exhaust parameters (thrust and specific impulse) in order to optimally match mission requirements”

Point 1) Why, oh why would one choose a LOWER Specific Impulse?

Point 2) Yes, it could make it to Mars in 39 days ASSUMMING an engine 100 times larger AND a nuclear reactor! If you’re going to base your 39 day trip on non-existent technologies, why not a 20 minute trip and assume we have a rocket that can accelerate to the speed of light? (aim high I say!)

Negatives aside, I think an Ion engine may be a good fit for ISS reboosts and was an interesting article.

That means that 1 kg can be accelerated to a speed of 24,000 m/s, or that 24,000 kg can be accelerated to 1 m/s, or somewhere in between….another good thing is that the fuel for this engine is less massive translating into a higher payload. (note, the delta v from LEO to LMO is about 6,100 m/s, meaning that the VASIMR could take a payload of 3.93 kg to Low Mars Orbit).

Mistake, disregard that post of mine above, lol.

So, the true computation is as follows:

Specific Impulse = (6000 s)*(9.81 m/s^2)*(1 kg/1000g) = 58.860 newton-seconds imparted on the ship per gram of ion propellent

If the VASIMR delivers 4 newtons of thrust, then it is burning fuel at a rate of:

(58.860 n-s/g)(dm/dt) = 4 newtons

dm/dt = 0.068 grams/second

The amount of energy being burned by this ion propulsion process in a vacuum is as follows:

(4 newtons)*(V exhaust) ~ 201 kilowatts

so therefore V exhaust ~ 50,250 m/sec ~ specific impulse, right?

a new rocket tested successfully

More like a rocket engine, and it wasn’t tested in drift conditions (i.e. vacuum of space).

Speaking of which, Google Fast Flip aggregate made me aware today of Popular Mechanics (which I don’t read) article on a similar helicon design from MIT, which is tested in drift condition.

“NASA developed a similar engine for its Deep Space 1 Mission, launched in 1998, but the new thruster has advantages. To start, NASA employed pricey xenon gas ($13 per liter) excited into plasma by delicate electrical components, while the new design uses nitrogen (5 cents per liter) activated by a rugged radio-frequency antenna. A mag­netic field channels the plasma through a nozzle at a stunning 40 km/sec, an order of magnitude greater than the output of a chemical rocket.”

Why, oh why would one choose a LOWER Specific Impulse?

Because it is faster and making the engine more robust to throttle rf boost than throttling flow (thrust)? Or it was just another gadget in the new toy.

For your other concerns, apparently the engine scales well as seen by the test, that was the prediction going into the 200 kW demonstration.

And as regards power, that too has been demonstrated by scalable nuclear reactor designs such as goes into other vehicles. Nuclear sub reactor sizes goes up to 55 MW, and ice-breaker reactors up to 170 MW. A 90 MW design had a 1.6 m high x 1.0 m radius core @ ~ 80 kg low-enriched fuel. A 170 MW design had ~ 150 kg high-enriched fuel. [Wikipedia]

Perhaps the high-enriched fuel can be used to keep the core size down. Anyway, I don’t see anything untoward here. And as noted on a thread on NASA development on a smallish ~ 40 kW nuclear reactor for a Moon habitation, apparently nuclear reactors have been used in space before.

Besides the proven scalability and space use, existing reactors makes it hard to say whether this technology doesn’t already exist or not.

I think these technologies need to be pushed not necessarily for human missions but for outer-solar system missions. Mars in 29 days? Cool, but what about the fact that this sort of technology potentially makes Neptune and Uranus realistic targets for exploration again? I would literally freak out with joy if they could park a probe in orbit around Neptune and Triton – it is something I dearly hope to see in my lifetime, but technology is going to need to come a long way before that happens. This sort of tech is oxygen to that ember of hope.

Sorry about the unnecessary double negation. Also, I meant to add that a reference to earlier reactors. Here is one:

“While Russia has used over 30 fission reactors in space, the USA has flown only one—the SNAP-10A (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) in 1965.”

“They only produce a pound of thrust, but in space that’s enough to move 2 tons of cargo.” Why the reference to 2 tons in particular??? Why not 4, or 10, or 200? According to Newton, one pound of thrust can move an arbitrarily large mass. The only difference is that the larger the mass, the less the acceleration.

@Torbjorn Larsson OM: While Russia has used over 30 fission reactors in space, some of them are so poorly shielded that they effectively blind some military and scientific satellites (mainly US satellites) with FUV, X-ray and gamma-ray detectors when they pass nearby. Hopefully most of these will be able to be safely deorbited.

This is all good news. My maths isn’t up to it so tell me, can this rocket do the Hohmann Transfer from Moon orbit to Mars or Moon to Asteroids http://home.att.net/~ntdoug/smplhmn.html

I like what Astrofiend said on this above, I’m so sick of having to wait 10 years or more for a probe to get anywhere in the solar system.

Using tech like this to send probes to deep space could be a very good way to test the technology for human use.

I agree with the deep space missions too. We should have probes orbiting Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

I also concur with what Astrofiend said. Let’s get some robotic probes to the outer SS. Sadly, no real exploration is going to happen until we figure out how to at least approach .5C, and even more sadly, it’ll never happen in my lifetime. Still, we’re making progress.

Quantum_Flux: You must divide exhaust velocity by the gravitational acceleration (9.81 m/sec^2) to get specific impulse in seconds. Therefore, 50,250 m/s would yield a specific impulse of 5,122 seconds.

Propulsion systems that use high-speed ejecta to slowly accelerate an object are notoriously energy inefficient; the higher the Isp, the worst the energy efficiency.

A tremendously must better system would employ an electro-dynamic pulse tether. Such tethers are only 1km long and ALL of the acceleration occurs while in earth LEO. If you accelerate an object at 1g for 621 seconds, you will have a delta V of 6,100 m/s, which is sufficient to reach Mars. Since the tether system would do you no good at Mars, you would want to quickly decelerate it before it left LEO and allow the payload to coast all the way to Mars. Such a tether system would require very stocky tethers, very large plasma contactors, and a very big power source (such as a flywheels, supercapacitor, or lithium ion batteries) since every metric ton of vehicle will require 18.6gigajoules (5,200 kWh) at 30MW. A recent study stated a lithium battery could produce 300 kW/kg and flywheels can achieve 1,000 kW/kg.

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6 technologies nasa is advancing to send humans to mars.

1. Powerful propulsion systems to get us there (and home!) quicker

2. inflatable heat shield to land astronauts on other planets, 3. high-tech martian spacesuits, 4. martian home and lab on wheels, 5. uninterrupted power, 6. laser communications to send more information home.

Mars is an obvious source of inspiration for science fiction stories. It is familiar and well-studied, yet different and far enough away to compel otherworldly adventures. NASA has its sights on the Red Planet for many of the same reasons.     Robots, including the Perseverance rover launching soon to Mars, teach us about what it’s like on the surface. That intel helps inform future human missions to the Red Planet. We’ll also need to outfit spacecraft and astronauts with technologies to get them there, explore the surface, and safely return them home. The roundtrip mission, including time in transit – from and back to Earth – and on the Martian surface, will take about two years.   Technology development has already begun to enable a crewed Mars mission as early as the 2030s. Many of the capabilities will be demonstrated at the Moon first, during the Artemis missions, while other systems are more uniquely suited for deeper space. Here are six technologies NASA is working on to make Mars science fiction a reality.

Astronauts bound for Mars will travel about 140 million miles into deep space. Advancements in propulsion capabilities are the key to reaching our destination as quickly and safely as possible.

It is too soon to say which propulsion system will take astronauts to Mars, but we know it needs to be nuclear-enabled to reduce travel time. NASA is advancing multiple options, including nuclear electric and nuclear thermal propulsion . Both use nuclear fission but are very different from each other. A nuclear electric rocket is more efficient, but it doesn’t generate a lot of thrust. Nuclear thermal propulsion, on the other hand, provides much more “oomph.”

Whichever system is selected, the fundamentals of nuclear propulsion will reduce the crew’s time away from Earth. The agency and its partners are developing, testing, and maturing critical components of various propulsion technologies to reduce the risk of the first human mission to Mars.

The largest rover we’ve landed on Mars is about the size of a car, and sending humans to Mars will require a much bigger spacecraft. New technologies will allow heavier spacecraft to enter the Martian atmosphere, approach the surface , and land close to where astronauts want to explore.

NASA is working on an inflatable heat shield that allows the large surface area to take up less space in a rocket than a rigid one. The technology could land spacecraft on any planet with an atmosphere. It would expand and inflate before it enters the Martian atmosphere to land cargo and astronauts safely.

The technology isn’t ready for the Red Planet just yet. An upcoming flight test of a 6-meter diameter (about 20-feet) prototype will demonstrate how the aeroshell performs as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. The test will prove it can survive the intense heat during entry at Mars.

Spacesuits are essentially custom spacecraft for astronauts. NASA’s latest spacesuit is so high-tech, its modular design is engineered to be evolved for use anywhere in space.

The first woman and the next man on the Moon will wear NASA’s next-generation spacesuits called the exploration extravehicular mobility unit or xEMU. The spacesuits prioritize crew safety while also allowing Artemis Generation moonwalkers to make more natural, Earth-like movements and accomplish tasks that weren’t possible during the Apollo missions.   

Future upgrades to address the differences on Mars may include technology for life support functionality in the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and modified outer garments to keep astronauts warm during the Martian winter and prevent overheating in the summer season.

To reduce the number of items needed to land on the surface, NASA will combine the first Martian home and vehicle into a single rover complete with breathable air.

NASA has conducted extensive rover testing on Earth to inform development of a pressurized mobile home on the Moon. Artemis astronauts who live and work in the future pressurized Moon rover will be able to offer feedback to help refine the rover capabilities for astronauts on Mars. NASA’s robotic rovers will help with the Martian design, too – everything from the best wheels for Mars to how a larger vehicle will navigate the tough terrain.

Much like an RV, the pressurized rover will have everything inside that astronauts need to live and work for weeks. They can drive in comfortable clothing, tens of miles from the spacecraft that will launch them back to space for the return trip to Earth. When they encounter interesting locations, astronauts can put on their high-tech spacesuits to exit the rover and collect samples and conduct science experiments.

Like we use electricity to charge our devices on Earth, astronauts will need a reliable power supply to explore Mars. The system will need to be lightweight and capable of running regardless of its location or the weather on the Red Planet.

Mars has a day and night cycle like Earth and periodic dust storms that can last for months, making nuclear fission power a more reliable option than solar power. NASA already tested the technology on Earth and demonstrated it is safe, efficient, and plentiful enough to enable long-duration surface missions. NASA plans to demonstrate and use the fission power system on the Moon first, then Mars.

Human missions to Mars may use lasers to stay in touch with Earth. A laser communications system at Mars could send large amounts of real-time information and data, including high-definition images and video feeds.

Sending a map of Mars to Earth might take nine years with current radio systems, but as little as nine weeks with laser communications . The technology would also allow us to communicate with astronauts, to see and hear more of their adventures on the Red Planet.   NASA proved laser communications is possible with a demonstration from the Moon in 2013. The agency’s next demo will work through different operational scenarios, perfect the pointing system, and address technology challenges from low-Earth orbit – things like clouds and other communications disruptions. NASA is building small systems to test for human spaceflight, including on the International Space Station and the first crewed Artemis mission. Another laser communications payload will venture to deep space to help inform what it takes to use the same technology millions and millions of miles away from Earth.  

To learn more about NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars

May 8, 2024

NASA’s Plans for Next-Generation Mars Helicopters Are Up in the Air

After the spectacular success of the first-ever “Marscopter,” mission planners have soaring ambitions for follow-up flying machines

By Lyndie Chiou

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft soaring over the dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan. After the demise of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter and an ongoing replan of the space agency's Mars Sample Return efforts, Dragonfly is the only interplanetary aircraft confirmed for a future mission.

NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Almost no empty seats remained in the large auditorium for opening day of the 2024 Transformative Vertical Flight conference devoted to helicopter research. Håvard Grip, a chief engineer at NASA, stood before the waiting crowd of aeromechanical engineers to deliver his presentation on the many triumphs—and the downfall—of Ingenuity, the record-setting helicopter that flew scores of missions on Mars before ultimately crashing in mid-January 2024.

“We learned a ton,” said Grip of the process the agency used to design Ingenuity, which had opened an entirely new frontier in helicopter research with its flights through Mars’s thin, otherworldly air. Everything from the design to the testing protocol had been developed from scratch. He described the groundbreaking helicopter’s testing lab as a “poor man’s” wind tunnel: to measure wind movements on their prototype, the researchers used a giant arm that latched onto the copter and swung it around inside a 25-foot room that replicated Mars’s atmospheric conditions.

From a mechanical engineering perspective, Ingenuity was a decisive victory, completing 71 successful flights. But the helicopter also had an Achilles’ heel: the autonomous navigation software that was so crucial to the mission’s success also struggled to orient the craft in bleak, featureless terrain because it relied too much on small-scale features such as rocks as waypoints. On what would become the helicopter’s final flight, when NASA directed Ingenuity to land on a bland, sandy flat, the craft lost its bearings, tilted over sharply, and drove a rotor into the sand, snapping off the blade’s tip.

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“In retrospect, we can see how that terrain is different from other kinds of terrains that we’ve flown in,” said Grip, who had previously acted as Ingenuity’s chief pilot in the helicopter’s early days. “And it turns out that it was just a little bit too challenging for Ingenuity to handle, and so that is a lesson, right?”

Ingenuity has flown its last mission , but within a decade, at least one of its technological children may embark on a voyage to distant planets. Several speakers at the conference presented new or updated designs for helicopters that benefited from the knowledge gained fromtheir pioneering parent’s off-world flights.

At the time, the conference was galvanized by the overall sentiment that NASA saw helicopters as an integral part of planetary exploration . Now, however, after a recent mix of good and bad news, the future is murkier.

An Airborne Renaissance

There are compelling reasons to include helicopters in interplanetary missions. Rovers tend to be slow and simply can’t navigate some of the more formidable terrains. On the other hand, NASA has designed helicopters capable of reaching peak speeds of almost 70 miles per hour on Mars, ascending to the peaks of its mountains and then descending into the depths of its craters left over from ancient oceans. The maneuvering prowess of one design should even give it the ability to explore the insides of caves.

Ingenuity’s achievements have sparked something of a renaissance in helicopter science, and NASA has developed lists of specifications for several more planetary helicopters, most of which will never be built. But each new configuration helps NASA to learn and iterate, with the hope of identifying the best possible designs for a range of challenging conditions.

The most developed plans include Dragonfly , which recently received the green light to head for Saturn’s largest moon, and the Sample Recovery Helicopter (SRH), which faces an unclear future as a potential part of the space agency’s troubled Mars Sample Return (MSR) program . Other possibilities include a few concept helicopters—for instance, the Mars Science Helicopter, which wouldn’t need a rover or lander as a “mothership,” and the Planetary Telemetric Helicopter for Investigation and Analysis (PYTHIA), designed to travel down the Red Planet’s giant lava tubes.

Ingenuity’s Lessons

During his talk, Grip joked that Ingenuity’s biggest achievement was simply showing that flying on an alien world could be done. “It’s been an incredible ride,” he said. “I’ve worried a few times that we made it seem too easy. Flying on Mars is actually hard.”

Many unearthly challenges face helicopters on Mars. The key physics concepts that affect copters’ aerodynamics are air density, the speed of sound and something called the Reynolds number, which tells you how turbulent the airflow is around the vehicle.

For Mars, NASA’s engineers initially only focused on compensating for the unique air density, which is often quoted as a mere 1 percent of Earth’s. Such “weak” air makes it significantly harder for a helicopter to generate lift. William Warmbrodt, chief of aeromechanics at NASA’s Ames Research Center, says the situation is also a bit more nuanced. The geologically lower areas of Mars have higher air densities, making helicopter flight possible. But higher elevations have an air density of less than 1 percent, requiring more sophisticated flight designs.

Initially Ingenuity’s design was based solely on overcoming the challenge of low-elevation air densities. But when the team tested its first prototype in free flight, it was unstable, wobbling and jittering during tests. Grip says the team didn’t dare try again until it had mastered how the speed of sound and Reynolds numbers affected flight. This culminated in the researchers’ second prototype, which “was indeed successful.”

To help plan future missions, scientists used flight-log data to learn about handling the atmospheric conditions on Mars. By looking at the minute adjustments in thrust that Ingenuity autonomously used to stabilize itself during flight, they could infer detailed information on the wind velocity for different altitudes—something impossible to measure via earthly telescopes or instrumentation in Mars’s orbit or on its surface.

“The thrust vector has to point into the wind because it has to overcome fuselage drag due to the winds,” Warmbrodt explains.

On a more mundane but equally important note, Warmbrodt says the Ingenuity team was elated to confirm that consumer electronics could handle interplanetary exploration. Ingenuity’s brains came from the equivalent of a simple mobile phone processor, which was able to withstand the extremes of a rocket launch and a Mars landing, as well the low pressure and variable temperatures of the alien world’s surface—a fact that came up a few times during talks at the conference.Previously, NASA had only used custom hardware which required costly testing to prove spaceworthiness. The ability to use commercially available components, Warmbrodt says, would provide a huge cost benefit in future designs.

Course Correction

Post-Ingenuity, a pair of SRHs were supposed to be the first flying machines to return to Mars. Appearance-wise, an SRH closely resembles Ingenuity, with a similar stacked rotor blade configuration on top of its frame. But an SRH has an additional trick beyond what Ingenuity was able to handle because it’s meant to pick up specimens for a return to Earth.

Since 2021, as part of NASA’s MSR plan, the space agency’s Perseverance rover has been collecting and stashing small sample tubes around Mars’s Jezero Crater in an area dubbed the Three Forks depot . Athena Chan, a NASA mechanical engineer working on the SRH project, says that to grab those tubes, the design for SRH includes an arm and gripper, as well as wheels, enabling it to drive short distances if needed.

Chan was in the middle of designing SRH test equipment for a new wind tunnel when NASA held a press conference on Monday, April 15, to announce that it had “descoped” the program’s helicopters. A report from an independent review board had found that the overall MSR effort could cost upwards of $11 billion, far more than the originally proposed $6 billion. The review board also expressed consternation for the mission’s timeline, which estimates pegged at bringing Mars rocks back to Earth circa 2040. At a press conference, NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters that this will be the same decade in which the agency is “gonna be landing astronauts on Mars,” ostensibly making the sample returns a moot point.

At the moment, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has updated the MSR design specifications in a way that “ does not allow accommodation of helicopters .” It also included a back door, however, that would allow NASA to potentially squeeze in a helicopter “for added risk reduction,” albeit with a tighter budget. The answer to the question of when helicopters will once again fly through Mars’s not-so-friendly skies is up in the air.

Next Stop: Titan

The only helicopter with a guaranteed launch—just confirmed on April 16—is Dragonfly, which will sample a world even farther afield: the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. The samples will be analyzed on the spot instead of returned to Earth.

Unlike Mars, Titan has an atmosphere akin to a thick soup—60 percent denser than Earth’s. Such a dense atmosphere favors helicopters because the propellers will be able to push against the thick air to generate an enormous amount of thrust.

“The density of the atmosphere means a human might be able to fly by ‘swimming’” in Titan’s air, Warmbrodt says.

Such a favorable aerodynamic environment allowed engineers to design a much heavier craft, one that more closely resembles something from science fiction. While Ingenuity and Dragonfly share a stacked coaxial rotor design, that’s where the comparison ends. Roughly the size of a car and weighing more than 900 pounds , Dragonfly is large enough to make Ingenuity look like a pip-squeak. And it has four sets of stacked rotors ringing its perimeter instead of just one sprouting from its center, Ingenuity-style.

Engineers have also equipped Dragonfly with a nuclear power source, foregoing the solar cells used by Ingenuity and its ilk. Plutonium 238 will power Dragonfly’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator in order to charge up the craft’s batteries for flights. NASA engineer Jason Cornelius says that the nuclear power source was needed because the sun’s light is too faint to charge solar panels on Titan. That faintness arises from two things—the moon’s great distance from the sun as well as its thick, light-attenuating atmosphere.

“We also use the heat from the nuclear power plant to keep the vehicle warm,” he adds—a useful benefit because the surface of Titan is around –290 degrees Fahrenheit (–180 degrees Celsius).

Returning to the Red Planet

In late 2023 Grip left the Ingenuity program to become chief engineer for the Mars Science Helicopter (MSH). He said the design for the MSH hasn’t been completely settled yet, but it is likely to be the first Mars-bound mission to abandon the stacked rotor blade configuration and instead use a hexacopter design that will space six rotor blades around the craft’s body. Standing a little more than four feet tall and weighing just five pounds, it will also be larger and heavier than Ingenuity and able to carry a gross weight of around 68 pounds, including about 18 pounds of payload.

“The best way to think about it is that it’s one concept that has received a fair bit of attention and study over several years,” Grip says, “but it’s not an approved mission.”

Another promising concept is PYTHIA, designed to navigate Mars’s caves. In the past, active volcanoes on Mars pushed hot lava to the surface via tunnels. After the volcanoes cooled, the tunnels hardened into large lava tubes.

At the conference, a NASA team presented PYTHIA’s proposed design of a smaller drone body with four rotors and eight blades. A prospective landing site has already been selected: Arsia Mons, Mars’s third-highest point of elevation, at around 38,000 feet. Thanks to Ingenuity’s flight data, engineers know the extremely low air pressure that PYTHIA will face and have modeled how to compensate so it can navigate such heights.

As helicopters line up to travel to distant, inhospitable worlds, they are opening up new possibilities for the exploration of not just extraterrestrial science but also the science of flight. Such insights could one day help helicopters here on Earth. “It’s not a direct one-to-one comparison, yet flying on Mars can help with designing new rotorcraft flying at very high altitudes on Earth,” Chan says.

An orbiter captured images of 'spiders' on Mars in Inca City. But what is it, really?

The mars orbiter images appear to suggest that the red planet has succumbed to an infestation of creepy crawlies, but what's really going on has to do with a carbon dioxide eruption..

One look at recent images released by the European Space Agency may cause you to wonder if spiders are on the cusp of bursting forth onto the Martian surface .

But arachnophobes have nothing to fear, even if the Mars orbiter images appear to suggest that the Red Planet has succumbed to an infestation of creepy crawlies. Rather, a strange chemical reaction recently captured by European Space Agency probes is to blame for the spider-like feature spotted at a formation known as Inca City in Mars' southern polar region.

As the ESA explained , the images comprised of data gathered Feb. 27 by the Mars Express orbiter show clustered dots that formed due to seasonal eruptions of carbon dioxide gas.

It's just the latest instance in which this distinctive phenomenon has been documented. ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has also captured visual evidence of the spidering effect, as have NASA spacecrafts.

Here's what to know about it.

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What are the 'spider' formations really?

The features known as "spiders" form when the weather starts to warm during the Martian springtime.

As the sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months, the ice begins to melt and the warmth causes the lowest layers of ice to turn to gas. The carbon dioxide gas warms and builds up before eventually breaking through slabs of overlying ice, dragging dark dust with it to the surface that shatters through like a geyser.

When the dust settles back down, it etches patterns into the surface and beneath the ice that manifest as dark blotches resembling the spindly legs and bodies of spiders.

The process is unlike anything seen on Earth.

ESA's Mars Express orbiter captures latest sign of 'spiders'

The latest images of the formations, which are channels of gas measuring 0.03 to 0.6 miles across, were most recently captured by ESA's Mars Express orbiter, which arrived at the planet in 2003.

The formation of dark spots indicating the presence of "spiders" was spotted in Inca City, a region nicknamed for its resemblance to the Inca Ruins of Earth.

Another of ESA’s Mars explorers, the  ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter  (TGO), has previously imaged the spiders’ tendril-like patterns especially clearly in 2020 in a nearby region. While the Mars Express view shows the dark spots on the surface, the TGO perspective captured the web-like channels carved into the ice below.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also captured images in 2018 showing the "spiders" beginning to emerge from the landscape.

In the Mars Express image, the dark spots can be seen creeping across the towering hills and expansive plateaus of the mysterious Inca City discovered in 1972 by  NASA’s Mariner 9 probe . While scientists aren't exactly sure how the ridges and walls formations of Inca City came to be, it's theorized to be the remnants of sand dunes turned to stone.

In 2002, NASA's Mars Orbiter revealed  that Inca City is part of a large circle approximately 53 miles wide – suggesting the formation is the result of a space rock crashing into the surface and creating a crater. Faults that rippled through the surrounding plain could have filled with rising lava that has since worn away, revealing a formation resembling ancient ruins.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

India's ambitious 2nd Mars mission to include a rover, helicopter, sky crane and a supersonic parachute

India is aiming high with its next Mars mission.

India is preparing to launch a family of seemingly sci-fi robots to Mars, perhaps as soon as late 2024.

The Mars Orbiter Mission-2 (MOM-2), or Mangalyaan-2 (Hindi for "Mars Craft"), is set to include a rover and a helicopter, like a robotic NASA duo already on Mars — the Perseverance rover and now-grounded Ingenuity . A supersonic parachute and a sky crane that will lower the rover onto the Martian surface will also be part of Mangalyaan-2, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials said last week during a presentation at the Space Applications Centre in Gujarat, India Today reported .

NASA pioneered the use of a Mars sky crane in 2012 with its Curiosity rover and employed it again in 2021 to get Perseverance down. The Ingenuity helicopter was attached to Perseverance's underbelly during the journey to Mars and later deployed onto the surface for its history-making mission.

Related: Mars: Everything you need to know about the Red Planet

India aims to accomplish similar milestones, and if successful, would become the third country to land a spacecraft on Mars, after the United States and China. Media reports from late last year suggest that Mangalyaan-2 will have at least four science instruments designed to study the early history of Mars, analyze its leaking atmosphere, and look for a hypothesized dust ring around the planet generated by its two moons, Phobos and Deimos .

Local media reports suggest that Mangalyaan-2 could launch as soon as later this year, a timeline that seems a bit ambitious, given that few key components are still in development, including the multi-instrument helicopter, the sky crane and the supersonic parachute. ISRO has so far made no official announcements about the mission.

India's first Mars mission, MOM or Mangalyaan , was a homegrown technology-demonstrating orbiter put together in 18 months that reached Mars in September 2014. Mangalyaan's success made India the fourth entity to get an orbiter to Mars, after the United States, the European Space Agency and the Soviet Union — but India did so on its first try, and on a shoestring budget of $74 million. For comparison, NASA's most recent Mars orbiter, MAVEN , has a price tag of about $670 million. 

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— India's first Mars mission in pictures (gallery)  

—  The Mars helicopter Ingenuity is an amazing success. NASA's already testing tech for the next generation (video)

 — ISRO: The Indian Space Research Organisation  

Following the accomplishment, and to celebrate the country's first foray into interplanetary space, in 2016 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced an illustration of Mangalyaan on the back of the country's highest denomination currency note of ₹2,000 (approximately $24 US). (Last May, the RBI decided to withdraw that note from circulation, following what the organization said was a successful demonetization effort to curb black money.)

Mangalyaan also inspired multiple works in Indian cinema, including the 2019 popular Hindi movie "Mission Mangal," a fictional take on the lives of the project's scientists. 

ISRO designed Mangalyaan to last just six to 10 months, but the orbiter far exceeded those expectations, operating for nearly eight years before ISRO lost contact with it in April 2022.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur.

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• Cisventure Astronot First Chandrayaan-3, and now this. I should pay more attention to the ISRO. Reply
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