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Going To Mars, Part 1: The Human Element

June 14, 2017 By groundcontrol 4 Comments

We are so lucky to have Ross Wakefield join us as a guest writer.

Please visit our “Get Involved” page to learn more about how you can volunteer and/or join The Mars Generation. Let’s go to Mars!

*** Please note guest submissions are options of the author and do not necessarily reflect the mission or beliefs or The Mars Generation.

Introduction

Previously, we took a look at where the various national, multinational and private space companies around the world were in terms of a possible human mission to Mars – their current capability, a limited look at the technology they are developing for possible future missions, and what their potential time-lines were for a landing on our nearest planetary neighbor.

It is the last of those topics that forms the basis of this first detailed article; the various pressures both mental and physical that astronauts would expect to face on such a long voyage into space, and what methods are being developed – and have already been developed – to be able to deal with those pressures.

What We Know So Far

First Missions, Space Stations

It has been fifty-six years since a human – the Russian Yuri Gagarin – first slipped the surly bonds of Earth and became the first man to orbit the Earth, beginning the journey of humanity into space in earnest. Not too long afterwards, the US sent human missions beyond Earth orbit multiple times, six of which were to land on the Moon. All of these missions were never longer than a few days in length, but all of them made vast and meaningful contributions not only to the strength and tenacity of the human spirit, but also to our knowledge of the environment beyond the Earth and how to survive there. Space, though it may look comforting and awe-inspiring from down on the Earths surface, is dangerous in a multitude of different ways – but more on those later.

In the many years since Apollo 17 returned from the Moon humanity has not sent another human out beyond Earth orbit, but instead has worked on long term habitation in the slightly more welcoming environment of what is called Low Earth Orbit (or LEO for short). Within this very nearby orbital environment, several attempts at long-term habitation have been made in the form of various space stations. At first, the stations were built by individual nation-states rich enough to fund them (such as the US Skylab and the Russian Mir), but after the end of the Cold War enough nations realized that cooperation was the best policy and so first the idea and then the actuality of the International Space Station came into being. Beginning construction in 1998, first inhabited in late 2000, still being adapted with more and more parts as of 2017 and due to be used until at least 2024, the ISS is a truly remarkable success story regarding cooperation in space.

Current Capability and Caveats

Aboard the ISS, a crew of six lives for anything up to 200 days in the course of one ‘expedition’, with three being replaced usually before the 200-day mark is reached. This length of time, coupled with the premise that astronauts can travel to the ISS for multiple different expeditions after spending some time back on Earth, means that many astronauts have clocked up a very great deal of time in space. The current record-holder (as mentioned in the last article) is one Russian Gennady Pedalka, with a grand total of 878 days logged in space as both a member of the crew of Mir and the ISS over five separate space missions. A handful of other astronauts have also logged over 800 days in space, and many more have managed over 500. Through the length of time of these varying missions in orbit, much information has been gleaned about the capacity of the human body to survive in space and how the space environment affects the human body both physically and mentally.

However, while various astronauts and cosmonauts have spent a very great deal of time in orbit, both the length of time and the various difficulties that would be faced are on another scale to what has been achieved so far. The record, as stated above, is 878 days – a remarkable figure, but one what still falls short of the likely mission time-line for a human exploration of Mars. That figure, based on the current plans of various space agencies and private companies, is around three years total – so approximately 1100 days. Also, those 878 days were split into five different blocks – Cosmonaut Pedalka had the chance to return to Earth and the various comforts it offered at reasonably regular intervals to allow himself to rest and recuperate. The members of a human Mars mission would have no such luxury.

With all of that in mind, let’s now expand on what some of those effects of a mission to Mars might be – physical and mental.

The Human Cost

Physical

As mentioned above due to the length of time some people have spent in space we have learned a very great deal about the short and long term physical effects a Mars mission might have on its astronauts. While there are additional factors to be considered when venturing beyond Earth orbit (more on those in a moment), careful analysis of each astronaut put into orbit both while there and once they returned to Earth has given us a reasonably good picture of what to expect.

On the Muscles

The first issue, in the long term, is muscle wastage. When a human being is in a zero-G environment, they will not use many of the muscles that people down on Earth would use without thinking in the course of their day-to-day movements – walking, sitting down, standing up, even the muscle movements that simply keep the human body upright against gravity, amongst others – all movements that would be done without thought on Earth, but have no zero-G equivalent. Because of this the unused muscles will, over time, begin to atrophy away and be no longer able to be used effectively. This would no present a problem if the person in question were staying in space for the rest of their lives…but as it would be nice for them to return to Earth someday, those muscles need to be ready for when they do.

To this end, all space agencies expect and carry out a strict training regimen for their astronaut candidates that rival those of champion athletes. Both before their mission and particularly during, astronaut candidates engage in resistance exercise (weight practice) three to six days a week and aerobic exercise (running, cycling etc) for five hours a week. However recent findings from NASA indicate that even this is not enough; after a six month mission to the ISS, astronauts presented back on Earth with significantly decreased peak power and muscle mass. The addition of more fitness equipment and an even stricter training regimen for ISS inhabitants has helped mitigate this somewhat, but not completely. And this is the effects observed over six months of spaceflight; a mission to Mars would be six times as long.

On The Bones

The second issue is the likely deterioration of bone over a long term space mission. Under normal circumstance, new bone is laid down in the direction of mechanical stress; however in a zero-G environment there is precious little mechanical stress for this to occur. This results in a loss of bone tissue, largely centered on the lower vertebrae, pelvic hips and femurs, making these bones weak. Over a period of time, this results in symptoms similar to people on Earth suffering from the condition osteoporosis – greatly weakened bone which vastly increases the risk of broken bones when the astronaut returns to Earth.

To help counteract this, various space agencies employ the exercise regimen described above (though exercise hasn’t been proven to be useful in preventing bone loss as it has in preventing muscle degradation) and a variety of dietary supplements, most notably calcium and vitamin D. It is also possible that Earth-based remedies for osteoporosis may also work for long-term spaceflight, though once again the effectiveness of such remedies in this application is unknown.

Other Issues

Another big issue is one that cannot be wholly quantified unless a human mission is sent beyond Earth orbit. Once a spacecraft with humans ventures beyond the Earths own magnetic field, the craft will be exposed to all of the radiation (in the form of high-energy elementary particles) that the Sun can throw at it. This as you might have guessed, is not a good thing – these particles act in the same way radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion or reactor meltdown would on Earth, potentially causing long-term cancers and even acute and fast-acting radiation sickness if the dose is big enough. Over a long time period, even the craft electronic systems themselves begin to fail: the fate of several probes and orbiters sent to various other planets in the Solar System attest to this.

The only way thought of so far to defend against such elementary radiation is to use shielding of various types to deflect the particles and so keep them away from the crew. Of course, the more shielding that is used and the safer the crew will be, the heavier the craft will be and so there are limits on such things. As a result, right now NASA and other various organizations are busy searching for methods that will be both lightweight and able to deflect radiation to an acceptable degree, on the craft going to Mars, the lander, and even the spacesuits of the crew themselves.

There are also other short-term (motion sickness) and long-term (visual disruption and possible inter-cranial pressure) physical effects that could present issues for a human mission to Mars, as well as the simple problem of not being able to return to Earth to receive very advanced medical care if needed – meaning that the astronauts would have to rely on their existing supplies, the medical expertise of those on board, and advice from the ground if needed.

Mental

Almost as important as the physical effects of a long-term zero-G environment is the mental ones. Astronauts from all over the world are trained to be ‘the best’ – the brightest, the toughest, the ones most geared to survival in the harshest of environments – but long-term spaceflight can and will stretch the mind of even the very toughest human being, as history has shown (the Skylab ‘mutiny’ in 1973, where the three orbiting astronauts refused all contact with the ground as well as all duties for a day, was an overt and spectacular example of the psychological pressures of spaceflight as well as other factors reaching critical mass, but many less spectacular examples also exist).

However, measuring and gauging the mental effects of spaceflight on individuals and groups in order to obtain information that could be used in future missions is at least a little easier than for physical effects, as numerous on-Earth comparisons can be found: long-term submarine missions and other isolated military postings, for instance, represent a similar situation to a long-term spaceflight mission – confinement with a small crew within a small habitat and a hostile environment outside. In light of this, there have been numerous discoveries made about the ability of humans to function psychologically in such situations.

More recently, space agencies from various nations have put together initiatives whereby a small crew of humans are subjected to the most realistic simulation of a Mars mission yet: confinement within a spaceship/station-style habitat in a remote area of Earth for a length of time at least comparable with that of a mission to Mars.

Mission Analogs

The analog that NASA uses is named HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), based on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. Isolated and roughly 2,500 meters above sea level, HI-SEAS began operations in 2013 and has been active every year since, staging ‘missions’ of duration from four months to a year designed to mimic as closely as possible the conditions a crew would experience going from Earth to Mars, and to monitor crew behavior, morale, and stress management and various other factors, all crucial should a human mission to Mars be launched in the near future. The timescale of the missions that HI-SEAS simulates are rather lower than that of current planned Mars missions, but regardless of this the facility continues to produce a wealth of information useful to the future success of a Mars mission.

The Russian equivalent project was named the Mars-500, and was (in the final stages of the project) designed to simulate a full 520-day Mars mission as part of its function. The crew of six – three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian and a Chinese national – participated in exercises designed to simulate everything, from launch to landing on the Martian surface to walking around in spacesuits on the Martian surface analog. During this year and a half, amongst the various other tests a battery of psychological examinations were given to the ‘cosmonauts’ in order to gauge their various mental states. In terms of such, the results of the simulation were a superb success – the crew were well able to adapt to their environment, there were next to no conflicts amongst the crew, and the possible language and cultural barriers that might have existed between the differing nationalities on the crew turned out to be groundless. It bodes well that a crew was able to survive and function in the way a crew would have to on a Mars mission with next to no visible, significant psychological pressure.

These two analogs, as well as varying other experiments, have given mission analysts a very good idea of the potential psychological problems that could result from spaceflight, as well as various ideas on countering them. These include conferences with friends and family in real time, sending of meaningful gifts, and the celebration of various special days (birthdays, national holidays) in conjunction with Earth. All of these have been at least partially proven to reduce crew stress on either orbital or even lunar missions.

However, both the length of time and the distance from Earth that a Mars mission represents present serious and untested barriers: both communication and the sending of resupply that might be relied upon to improve morale would be severely degraded the further a mission were to venture from Earth, and also the sight of Earth itself moving far away and becoming an insignificant dot in space might well have a negative effect psychologically on potential astronauts. This last factor, however, might be ameliorated by the use of a telescope through which Earth could be viewed.

Conclusion

The information that various space agencies have gleaned regarding the effects of spaceflight on the human body is substantial. Through nearly sixty years of orbital flight, we have been able to assess how exposure to possibly the single most hostile environment known to mankind can affect a human being both physically and mentally. We know that bone degrades after just a short time in space and what supplements to use to counteract it, and we know that long-term missions do not effect crew morale significantly. We know that muscle mass must be retained through the strictest of training regimens whilst in zero-G conditions, and we know that the support role of a mission commander is critical and positive in relation to crew cohesion and being able to ‘get the job done’.

However, for all the information that we have, there are still a great many unknowns that would factor into a human Mars mission that could end up affecting the crew in an adverse fashion. What, for instance, will be the radiation doses from the Sun and other sources that such a mission would have to deal with, and how could they be at least mitigated? How exactly would the human body deal with not just six months, but three years of zero or low-G environment? And when a crew is away orbiting Mars, spending months on end looking at Earth through a telescope, getting communication delayed by several minutes at least and waiting for the right planetary alignment to fire their thrusters to come home…would they really function in the same way as the crews psychologically tested in any one of the analogs used on Earth?

For all that we do know regarding the effects of a Mars mission on the human body and mind, there is still much – perhaps too much – that we don’t know. But, given the information we do have thus far and what we are still learning…by the time we do launch that mission and set out for the Red Planet, we’ll know enough. Enough to get there, to get back, and to tell the tale.

The Road To Mars: Our Past and Our Future

March 31, 2017 By groundcontrol 4 Comments

We are so lucky to have Ross Wakefield join us as a guest writer.

Please visits our “Get Involved” page to learn more about how you can volunteer and/or join The Mars Generation. Let’s go to Mars!

*** Please note guest submissions are options of the author and do not necessarily reflect the mission or beliefs or The Mars Generation.

Introduction

Image Credit: SpaceX

Forty-eight years ago, an American government agency that had only existed for eleven years up to that point achieved a feat many had believed impossible. Using a combination of engineering ingenuity and computing power that today could be outstripped by a reasonably well-powered smartphone, they sent a craft with three people crammed into just 210 cubic feet of space on a three-day journey. Their destination: the Moon.

On July 20, 1969, over half a billion people watched on television as the grainy black and white imagery of Neil Armstrong was seen descending the ladder of the lunar module, followed by his iconic words as, for the first time, a human being set foot on a world that was not theirs.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The joy was palpable, the sense of achievement worldwide. The words of President John F. Kennedy speaking in Congress eight years before, to before the end of the decade send a man to the Moon and then return them safely, had been made a reality.

In the aftermath of that first success, NASA – that American agency – would send ten more individuals to the Moon between 1969 and 1972. With the Moon conquered, they would then set their sights on a more ambitious, much longer project.

To send humans to Mars, our nearest planetary neighbour.

And now, forty-eight years later, we may finally be close to making that vision real.

Mars Missions In The Past

How It Began

Even before mankind had landed on the Moon, there had been missions proposed to venture to Mars. Wernher von Braun, a key part of the US team that was to get the Saturn V to the Moon, proposed several missions varying in both complexity and requirements. All of them, however, required vastly more mass to be sent into orbit than rockets then or now possessed (indeed, to achieve orbit his first proposal in 1952, a truly gargantuan effort involving 70 crew, would have needed a rocket or rockets with the lifting capacity of over three hundred Saturn V rockets – the largest ever to fly!)

Other proposals were suggested in both the US and the Soviet Union as the Cold War went on into the 1970’s and 80’s, and indeed both nations went on to put robotic probes onto the surface of Mars. What they could not, and did not, however, was advance a human mission to anywhere beyond the planning stage. It was deemed too costly, too dangerous and a luxury that neither nation could afford.

Moving Forward

In recent times, there have been more robotic missions sent to Mars courtesy of NASA, and also two other nations have joined the US and the former USSR in placing robotic probes in the orbit of Mars: the European Space Agency with their Mars Express in 2003, and most recently, India with their Mangalyann probe in 2014. At the present time, there are no less than eight active missions on the Martian surface, composed of six orbiters and two rovers from various nations.

However…though it has been proven that we can send a payload to Mars, all of these missions are robotic. For the last forty-five years, humans have looked up at Mars in the sky, looked at photographs of increasing quality that both orbiters and rovers alike have sent back, but never set out themselves – never set out beyond low Earth orbit, even.

With that in mind…how close in fact are we to launching a human mission to Mars? And if we were to do it…who would get there first? Which country would be responsible? Or would it indeed be a nation-state that would be the first?

In this article, I will attempt to answer those questions – or at least present an idea of what plans are in place as of the present day.

Present Day, Present Nations

NASA Right Now

At the present time, though such a mission would likely be an international effort, the nation best placed to have the technology in place to attempt a Mars mission is the United States. Though the budget in real terms of NASA has somewhat declined since the heady days of the Apollo program, more and more detailed plans are afoot for a human exploration of the Red Planet, and technology seems to be finally catching up with ambition.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA, in terms of planning a human exploration of the Red Planet, has come a long way from the days of von Braun and his grand proposals. Now, the plans consist of small crews using craft that while not fully tried-and-tested yet, can be fully conceived and equipped using currently existing technology. In 2014, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, designed to take a crew of four to six to beyond Earth orbit, had its first successful uncrewed flight test.

This craft, if successful, would be the first to carry humans beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972. The first human mission is slated for the early 2020’s (though subject to change), and following this more are proposed, including a recreation of Apollo 8 – a full-length flight to lunar orbit and then around the Moon multiple times, fully crewed. Whether one future Orion mission will involve an actual human landing – the first since 1972 – is still open to question.

However, the Orion, as capable as it is, is reasonably small – about half as much again as the original Apollo command module in terms of living space. Such an environment is sufficient for launch, splashdown and for a possible Moon landing, but a journey to the Moon would take a week there and back – a journey to Mars and back possibly in excess of three years. Therefore, it is obvious that a much larger living area is needed, for the supply as well as the psychological needs of the crew. To that end, NASA has come up with a plan for a Deep Space Habitat, or DSH.

To Live In Space

The DSH is based rather heavily on the existing design of the International Space Station. The success of the International Space Station, as well as some serious orbital time clocked up by Russian cosmonauts upon their various space stations before it, have proven that humans can survive in such an environment for at least a reasonable amount of time (the American astronaut Scott Kelly clocked up 216 consecutive days to make the record) and the crew quarters and laboratory of the DSH would be almost entirely derived from the design of the highly successful ISS Destiny module currently in orbit.

In addition to both the crew module and the Orion (to be used as a launch and splashdown vehicle), the DSH would have its own cryogenic propulsion system and a second support craft. This second craft is still very much at the conceptual stage (there are several different designs), though it is a reasonable certainty that it would be the part of the craft that would command the attention of the television networks of the world – it would be the part that humans would use to land on Mars.

With all of these parts plus an additional module for supplies, the DSH could be expected to last for the entirety of a 500-day mission. Unfortunately, for the purposes of a human return mission to Mars, 500 days is not quite enough – as said earlier in this article, a return mission of that type would likely take in the region of double that time.

However, the DSH, if successful, will prove that the type of technology required to take a human to Mars and back is within our grasp, and the intent of NASA during the 2020’s is to prove this by placing the completed DSH in cislunar space (between the Earth and Moon) and occupying it with a crew in order to test how human-conducted spacecraft function beyond Earth orbit for extended periods of time – with a possible captured asteroid for company. With that completed, a jump to Mars would be the next step.

Can They Get There?

So, what does this all add up to?

Well, the time-frame is, as always with such big projects, rather fluid. However, the first uncrewed Orion flight around the Moon is scheduled for next year, with the human lunar orbit due in 2021. This is planned to be closely followed by the assembly of a DSH in cislunar orbit, followed by more testing and experimenting during the 2020’s. With that in mind, it is possible that NASA could then aim for a human Mars mission in the 2030’s.

Let’s hope that timetable is adhered to. However, while NASA is acting on behalf of the US government (though in conjunction with private contractors), the recent advancement of commercial space companies looking to emulate or even surpass them cannot be ignored. How far along are they, and what plans do they have for the future?

America’s new spacecraft built by NASA. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Image Credit: NASA

Private Rocketry, Big Ambition

The Newest Player

Since the dawn of the 21st Century, there have been a number of private individuals forming their own companies in an attempt to join the nation-states out in space. While many of them have failed right out of the door and none of them have yet done so much as put a human into orbit using their own technology, the sheer speed of both advancement and ambition on the part of some of them deserves merit and further examination. In particular, as of the present time, there is one company that might challenge NASA in being the first to Mars – SpaceX.

The brainchild of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX was just one company among many until it became the first private company to achieve the success of having their own liquid-propelled rocket (the first of what they called the Dragon series) placed safely into orbit in 2008. Not being content with that, two years later they then went one better by not only placing another of their craft into orbit but also recovering the aforementioned craft.

It didn’t take long for people to take notice, and NASA soon granted SpaceX (along with one other company, Orbital Sciences) the rights to transport supplies from the Earth’s surface to the International Space Station. As of the present time, SpaceX has carried out ten such missions. In addition, in recent times SpaceX has demonstrated that the first stage of a rocket can be recovered intact for possible use in future missions, potentially vastly reducing launch costs.

However, though their ascent has been spectacularly successful thus far, SpaceX do not have, as yet, what is termed a ‘human rated’ rocket – a module that can be relied upon to take a human being into space. In 2011 NASA granted SpaceX the right to demonstrate a Dragon capable of taking humans into orbit for the purposes of going to and from the International Space Station and back to Earth, and the first human-rated flight is scheduled (tentatively) for the middle of 2018.

So, as of now, the private company is lagging behind the space agency in the ‘race’ to Mars by a rather significant margin. But what of their plans to catch up?

The SpaceX Ambition For Mars

Well, nine years after their first successful launch, SpaceX has plans for what they have called the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). After years of speculation and occasional details from Musk, at the International Astronautical Congress in 2016 he gave a thorough accounting of the proposed system and its capabilities. Its first major objective was clear – to get to Mars.

The design of the ITS would begin with a new launch vehicle. Far larger than even the Saturn V rocket (the biggest used successfully to date), the launch vehicle would be able to transfer over 300 metric tonnes of material or 380 metric tonnes of fuel to low-Earth orbit before being recovered and reused – if reuse wasn’t on the agenda, the capacity would stretch to 500 tonnes.

An additional feature of this heavy lifter would be the inclusion of what is called the ITS tanker – a module launched using the launch vehicle that is dedicated to holding fuel and fuel alone into orbit for later use. This would allow the spacecraft that would journey to Mars to be able to take on its fuel load while in orbit rather than on the ground, significantly expanding the possible capacity it could hold.

Which brings us rather neatly to the heart of the ambition of Musk and SpaceX – the interplanetary spaceship that would be used as the lander upon Mars.

Touchdown

The design, as unveiled at the aforementioned conference, would be for a Shuttle-style spacecraft around 50 metres long, with the capacity to carry 450 tonnes of cargo and crew to Mars, as well as the life support and propulsion systems to get them there. Due to the additional fuel capacity that would result from having the ITS tanker modules ready for it in orbit, the craft could make the journey to Mars within three to five months – a vast improvement on current possible capabilities.

In addition, the craft would be equipped with two large solar panels to provide additional power while on the initial phase of the journey (though these would be less help as the craft journeyed further away from the Sun and solar power became less pronounced).

In addition to these two critical vehicle concepts, SpaceX has also proposed an idea for a physical fuel processing plant upon Mars itself in order to generate fuel and so reduce costs and increase efficiency. This, of course, would be a difficult undertaking spread out over several missions until possible inception, but if completed it would allow a much greater deal of freedom for further exploration.

So ends the theory regarding the designs SpaceX have on a Mars mission. But can they really get there ahead of NASA?

Can They Get There?

Well, if the timetable that SpaceX propose is kept, it is certainly a possibility – the first uncrewed mission is slated to set course for Mars in 2020 as a demonstration, followed by three further preparatory missions to deliver certain supplies to Mars (chief amongst them a local power plant for use by human mission), and then in 2024 the first human-crewed mission.

However, this timetable has been admitted as optimistic, and as is the nature of such things there is always slippage – indeed, the date of that first mission has already been put back from 2018 to 2020. In light of this, it might be reasonable to expect that if SpaceX does make it, it may well be in the late 2020’s or early 2030’s, not 2024 as promised. This, however, would still give them a very good chance of getting there ahead of any nation-state or group of nation-states.

Image Credit: SpaceX

A recent event gives an addendum to this assessment; when questioned in February 2017, Mr. Musk confirmed that he had been contracted for a flight by two individuals around the Moon, echoing that of Apollo 8, in late 2018 – less than two years away, with no man-rated flight into orbit nor uncrewed lunar orbit achieved as yet by any of their craft! Should SpaceX be able to pull off this spectacular achievement in the time-frame they propose, it would give serious credence to the scope of their much bigger ambitions.

The remarkable advances of Mr. Musk and his space company in such a short space of time thus far have proven that they are quite serious about making the big jumps into space ahead of everyone else. Whether they can continue their pace of achievement all the way to Mars and be the first however…only time will tell.

Conclusions

At the present time, it can be concluded that the only two organisations who have the reasonably solid technological capability, mission plans and have demonstrated detailed equipment studies with the likelihood of funding them to launch a return mission to Mars before 2040 are a possible NASA/International cooperative mission, and SpaceX.

NASA and other nations

NASA currently have the lead in terms of currently existing technology and have a further advantage in terms of their Mars mission design using a majority of equipment that has already been tested in a space environment (such as the ISS Destiny module which would form the nerve centre of a habitat on such a mission). As such, they could have an easy boost in terms of both timetable and reliability of equipment of they were given the resources to go ahead with a Mars mission – a lot of preliminary work has already been done.

However, as a government agency, NASA is always at the mercy of public politics, which has a clear effect on both funding and resultant projects. It would be very easy to wake up one day and see the whole current idea of a Mars mission scrapped or replaced by a new one that would push the timetable years or even decades. The barriers to a successful Mars mission by NASA isn’t hampered so much by technological challenges they can’t overcome so much as it is the vagaries of reliable funding and support for the endeavor.

SpaceX

SpaceX has only existed for barely a decade and a half and has been putting rockets into orbit for only around half that. And yet, they have shown that a commercial company backed by private funding as well as income streams from NASA itself can lead to success in a very short time, demonstrating the same kind of drive that the US showed to win the race to the Moon almost five decades before.

However, in terms of equipment by comparison to any nation taking spaceflight seriously the cupboard is still very much bare: no robotic missions launched beyond Earth orbit, no human-rated launches whatsoever, no equipment that has been proven to work to support a crew in space on their way to Mars.

There is a lot of catching up for them to do – but the scope of the ambition of SpaceX has been clearly shown both by their success so far and by their clearly delineated and detailed plans for the future. In addition, their revenue stream is not subject to widespread public political opinion and so they will likely not suffer the same cash-based delays as a bigger governmental agency would do – at least, not for the same reasons.

And The Overall Conclusion Is…

There have been rash predictions made about the future of human spaceflight before (predictions of a human base on the Moon by the end of the 20th Century, for instance, proved to be rather off). Nevertheless, based on the current plans and technological developments of both of the companies above…we might, just might, be able to entertain the enchanting possibility that, at some point in the fourth decade of this century, or perhaps sooner still…our nearest planet will finally feel the tread of human feet.

Join Us At The Human To Mars Conference May 9-11 2017

March 24, 2017 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to be partnering with Explore Mars for their Human To Mars conference in Washington, D.C. May 9-11^th for a second year. Our founder and leader, Astronaut Abby will be speaking at the conference on May 9^,2017, and you can come hear her speak.

We have a special 15% discount code for everyone in our community Discount code: TMGMars

TMG members get 25% off the conference. Please email groudsupport@themarsgeneration.org to get your special discount code. if you would like to become a member to get this and other discount codes go to our membership page: http://themarsgeneration.org/membership/

Want to learn a little more? Watch the video of Astronaut Abby’s presentation at the conference last year here:

This is an exciting event you do not want to miss, visit http://h2m.exploremars.org/ and sign-up today.

Submit Questions: TMG Attends Upcoming Orion Spacecraft Parachute Test

March 5, 2017 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to have our STEM advisor, Jeff Herold representing The Mars Generation at NASA’s upcoming Orion Spacecraft parachute test on March 8, 2017. Jeff was able to gain media credentials from NASA through The Mars Generation.

Jeff will get an up close viewing of the test as well as an opportunity to interview engineers, scientists and others involved in NASA’s Journey To Mars. This is a great opportunity to ask your questions and/or have your students submit questions and/or your own kids. Don’t miss the chance to be a part of this fun adventure. Tune in for the test on Twitter for live updates follow @TheMarsGen and search the #OrionTMG hashtag. You do not need to be a registered Twitter user to search and follow a hashtag. Share the updates with your students and/or your kids. Click here to submit questions for Jeff.

Here is Jeff’s blog post about this event:

On Wednesday morning, March 8th, at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, I’ll be reporting on the second airdrop test of the Orion Spacecraft with it’s two low-speed drogue parachutes and three main parachutes as it prepares for landing the capsule. About a year ago, I was fortunate enough to visit the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to see the facility where the parachutes are designed and manufactured. This time, I will be a witness to seeing them in action!

This is an important step on our journey to Mars and I am honored to be representing The Mars Generation at this exciting event. However, I need your help. Before and after the drop test, I will be interviewing NASA scientists and engineers about the parachutes and I want to ask any questions you may have. This is your chance to not only learn about the test, but to be a part of history by asking questions about the parachutes, the Orion capsule, or anything related to our journey
to Mars.

If you have a question you’d like me to ask fill out this form and I’ll take them with me on my trip to Yuma, Arizona on Wednesday. I look forward to asking the representatives from NASA your direct questions. Answers will be found on Twitter. Search the hashtag #OrionTMG

For more information about the drop test event check out the NASA press release about this event.

About Jeff Herold

Jeff Herold is in his 17th year of teaching. He has taught everything from Kindergarten through 12th grade and community college. Currently, he teaches S.T.E.M. to 7th and 8th graders at Hillcrest Middle School in Glendale, Arizona. While not volunteering at local elementary schools at their science nights, he enjoys paragliding, attending professional development, and spending time with his family. His favorite student is his 6th grade son, Skyler.

Jeff is the 2015 Arizona Air Force Association Teacher of the Year and 2015 Arizona Challenger Space Center Educator of the Year. Jeff is a member of The Mars Generation Student Space Ambassador Planning Committee and the Train Like a Martian Planning Committee. You can follow his S.T.E.M. adventures on Twitter @STEMJeff.

Why Mars? Explore Mars Answers the Persistent Question

November 10, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

In a new series of op-ed pieces titled “Why Mars?” that is being published in the Huffington Post, representatives selected by the nonprofit group Explore Mars will discuss reasons we should continue on the Journey to Mars. The series features space enthusiasts from a variety of backgrounds–including The Mars Generations’s (TMG) Founder and President Astronaut Abby – including scientists, an astonruat and other STEM professionals.

TMG is a partners with Explore Mars, a nonprofit that aims to advance humanity’s path to the red planet. Explore Mars is the host of the annual Humans to Mars Summit in Washington D.C., where Astronaut Abby spoke earlier this year. Chris Carberry, the CEO of Explore Mars, believes that “the United States – including government, industry, academia, and the general public ― and our international partners are on the verge of moving forward with one of the most significant and awe-inspiring endeavors in human history” so they want to explain to the general public why this mission is important.

The Why Mars Series will feature a total of 11 pieces over the course of 10-12 weeks.

Check back weekly as we add all the posts in this Why Mars Series here for easy reference.

Why Mars? An Introduction To A 10-Part Series On Sending Humans To Mars – By Chris Carberry, CEO Explore Mars

Why Mars? An Astronaut’s Perspective – By John M. Grunsfeld, Astronaut, Scientist, Explorer

We Should Explore Mars So That Our Students Will Keep Dreaming Big – By Janet Ivey, Ceo Janet’s Planet

The Mars Generation: Why We Must Go To Mars – By Abigail Harrison/Astronaut Abby, Founder and President The Mars Generation

Why Study Mars? To Better Understand The Earth – By Philip Christensen, Professor of Planetary Geoscience, Arizona State University

My Personal Mission To (And For) Mars – By Clementine Poidatz, Actress

Why Mars Can Be Attractive And Affordable – By Joe Cassidy, Executive Director for Space Programs, Washington Operations, Aerojet Rocketdyne

Why Mars?- A Perspective From The United Arab Emirates – By Talal Kaissi Director of U.S.–U.A.E. Space Affairs, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates

Why Mars? To Discover How Life Originates – By Ramses Ramirez,Planetary Scientist and Astrobiologist, Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University

Why Mars? Because It Will Change Our World For The Better – By Mary Lynn Dittmar, Executive Director, Coalition for Deep Space Exploration

Why Mars? For Today’s Students, Exploring Mars Represents So Much More Than The Red Planet Itself – By Lance Bush, President and CEO, Challenger Center

The Right Stuff: A guide to Martian Potato Challenge Success

November 3, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

So you have been challenged to do the Martian #PotatoChallenge now what?

First scroll to the bottom of this page to read a bit about what the #PotatoChallenge is all about!

Here are the steps to follow to participate!

FIRST you must challenge at least one other person- preferably in public on social media – we suggest challenging a group of people! The more people you challenge the more fun for everyone! Also don’t be shy, challenge some famous people on Twitter too…you never know who may say yes! Bill Nye and Neil DeGrasse Tyson have both been challenged multiple times. We are still waiting to see if they have the right stuff!

To challenge someone go on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media channel and publicly declare:

“I challenge *tag Name of Person Challenged * to participate in the #PotatoChallenge for Give to Mars Day! #GTMD16 Learn details here: http://themarsgeneration.org/the-right-stuff-a-guide-to-martian-potato-challenge-success/“

AND Next Choose #2 or #3 below for your own challenge

2. You can accept the Potato Challenge and click here to sign up. You can also join the Ground Support Crew (talk about the challenge and cheer us on) for the challenge and sign up here. Email addresses will only be for awarding prizes and giving updates for the challenge.

3. You can head over to the TMG Give to the Max Day / Give to Mars Day donation page and contribute to The Mars Generation #GTMD16 fundraising initiative. Hurry because there are exclusive rewards for donations that are received by November 30, 2016. These rewards are perfect for your holiday gift list of space geeks – or just for your own geekiness!

AND Lastly – Spread the Word!

The success of the potato Challenge is in people sharing it with others. That means directly challenging people like we mentioned above, but also communicating with people about the event, inviting them to participate and talking about what The Mars Generation is about.

You can use email, social media channels and word of mouth. Remember to use our hashtags whenever possible #PotatoChallenge #GiveToMarsDay and the Give to the Max Day event hashtag #GTMD16 .

Here are a bunch of photos, and pre-written social media and email messages that you are free to use. Please feel free to edit the messages to fit your own voice and personality. It’s best when your messages are customized a bit!

What is the Potato Challenge?

This event is called the Martian Potato Challenge. The potato challenge is meant to be fun and relatively easy. You commit to eating your own ration of potatoes, just 10 medium potatoes and drinking the ration of water that you start with, 32 ounces, for the entire day. There will be water challenges every 2 hours as well as lots of ways to earn condiments for the potatoes, more water and even a shower.

Bring Us Home From Mars

The ultimate goal is to be saved from Mars by rest of the world working to raise the $10,000 TMG fundraising goal for the 24 hours! That’s right the goal is $10,000 raised in only 24 hours! The funds will be used for the TMG Space Camp Scholarship fund to send disadvantaged kids to Space Camp.

While the participants of the Potato Challenge may be spread around the world and only pretending to be stuck on Mars, there is sure to be a lot of fun and commradere on social media as people follow our hashtags #PotatoChallenge and #GTMD16 to follow the adventure.

Prizes and Lots of Fun

Every hour we will have a prize drawing for everyone who uses our #GTMD16 and #PotatoChallenge hashtags (see guidelines for how to use hashtag to qualify) – prizes include TMG logo t-shirts, Autographed Astronaut Abby photos, TMG patches, magnets and more!

We hope you will take the challenge with us, invite your friends to do the Potato Challenge and help The Mars Generation reach their fundraising goal of $10,000 to fuel their work going into 2017. Let’s show the world that dreaming big and setting out to make those dreams happen really can create results.

Together we can change the world.

Thank you for joining us on this adventure!

Scott Kelly A Space Pioneer Spends A Year In Space

March 22, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

Congratulations for the safe return of NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko who just finished living for almost a full year in space! What an awe-inspiring journey, experience and adventure for these individuals. This mission took tremendous leaps in terms of research to support and propel the next generation of astronauts farther into space.

The main goal of this mission was to help determine what will come next in terms of space exploration. This research supports the dream of going to Mars: research conducted on this mission will help scientists understand the unique challenges of microgravity while living on a spacecraft and how it affects the human body. By understanding these unique circumstances, it helps us mitigate risks for future astronauts and what genetic changes may occur. Traveling to Mars and physically being on Mars will be harsh on the human body, and much of this gathered information will increase the chances of those going to the red planet to survive for a return journey home.

When I think of Astronaut Kelly and other astronauts before him, I see them as true space pioneers. Their commitment to increasing scientific knowledge, allowing scientists to study all aspects of their bodies and their years of training is something I don’t think I personally could do. But because these astronauts were willing to undertake such a huge responsibility in the space community, it is from them that we learn so much.

In terms of this latest mission, Kelly is the first American to complete a continuous year-long mission in space, although four other astronauts have spent more time in space, on the Russian Mir Space Station.

Much of the focus was on the one-year trip in space, but there was an astounding amount of work done before and after the trip, really making this mission three years in length. To truly understand the changes in the human body, numerous samples needed to be gathered before the actual trip to space. Now that Astronaut Kelly is back, new samples are needed to determine changes after the trip. Going through the information and research will take years to process and understand. But having this invaluable information will help future missions, especially when shared with international partners for collaborative work.

Other research was conducted while on this mission as well. In fact, more than 400 other experiments took place. This will help increase biomedical knowledge for human exploration, reduce costs, improve processes and procedures and improve efficiency on future space station missions. The research done up there also included many studies that will benefit all of humanity.

With so much information for scientists and researchers to go through, it may take up to six years to publish that information. That may seem like a long time, but it is just a blink of an eye in terms of time that will bring us that much closer to the possibility of going to Mars.

With with this phenomenal mission over, I think of future astronauts like Astronaut Abby. I wonder how she will benefit from research done from this mission, or how her chances of survival will have greatly increased. And when she returns to Earth from her own journey, I can only dream of what research and scientific discoveries she will endow on future astronauts.

Thank you to past, present and future astronauts – this dream of sending astronauts to Mars is now a reality before us.

About The Author

Alice joined the TMG team because she believes in space exploration and loves all things related to STEM and space. Her work background is related to Canadian government and coordination of projects. Her free time is spent with her two daughters, traveling and learning whatever suits her interests! She is looking forward to connecting with the growing community!

Mausonaut Joins TMG and Reports on ExoMars Launch

March 9, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce a new and exciting partnership! We are pleased to have Mausonaut and his human scientist friend Holger, join The Mars Generation team. Mausonaut will serve as an honorary Student Space Ambassador as well as a spokesperson for The Mars Generation. And to kick things off he is reporting for us at the European Space Agency launch of ExoMars on March 14, 2016.

For the ExoMars launch the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the lander Schiaparelli will start their 6-month journey to Mars lifted by a Russian Proton launcher. Mausonaut has been selected as a social media reporter and allowed to follow the launch from a very special location. He will not be onboard (yet) and he will not be present at the launch base in Baikonur. But there is another interesting place to follow a launch – from the satellite control center. The center is called ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. All ESA satellites are controlled from there. And on March 14 TGO and Schiaparelli will be added to the list of satellites being controlled from there.

As always Mausonaut will report bilingual – in English and in German. He will be reporting mainly from his own Twitter account, @Mausonaut, but will also be tweeting from our Twitter account, @TheMarsGen. Finally you can find updates on our blog right here so make sure you sign up to get updates now.

Welcome Mausonaut – we have enjoyed getting to know you since we launched our organization last September and are so happy to have him join us officially.

TMG Founder to Speak at Humans To Mars Summit 2016

February 16, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce that our founder and spokesperson, Astronaut Abby, will be speaking at the 2016 Humans to Mars Summit. This annual Explore Mars premiere event is being help May 17-19, 2016 at the George Washington University in Washington D.C.

The speakers lineup on the first day of the event includes Astronaut Abby, Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye, Andy Weir, Dava Newman, Charles Bolden, Ellen St0fan, James Green and many other esteemed professionals in the space and science community. The event is expected to exceed past events with an estimate of over 1,000 attendees and one million viewers online.

We are proud to announce that The Mars Generation is partnering with Explore Mars (the event organizers) and through this partnership we are providing a special discount code for 15% off of Humans to Mars 2016 conference tickets for our community members. The discount code is TMGMars and can be used on all full event tickets. For more information and registration please visit the Human To Mars Summit website.

We could not be prouder to have Astronaut Abby represent The Mars Generation at the summit and we hope those who are able will join us. Together we can change the world!

PBS SCITECH NOW: Dr. Phil Metzger Talks About The Mars Generation

January 24, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are so excited to share this clip of the PBS show SCITECH NOW with our Advisory Board member Dr. Phil Metzger being interviewed by SCITECH NOW reporter Andrea Vasquez. Dr. Metzger talks about The Mars Generation and the future of human space exploration as well as what young people can look forward to in the 2030’s when we send humans to Mars. You can watch Dr. Metzger’s entire SCITECH NOW interview by clicking here.

“Mars is the next major destination in space travel and it’s going to take a new generation of budding scientists to get us there. The Mars Generation is a nonprofit organization focused on educating and exciting kids and adults about deep space exploration. Joining me is Dr. Phil Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida Space Institute, former NASA scientist at the Kennedy Space Center and an Advisor for The Mars Generation.” States Reporter Andrea Vasquez, on a January 6, 2016 segment of the PBS show SCITECH NOW.