DailyDirt: Going To Mars

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Feb 25th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Space travel is inherently risky, so it shouldn't be too surprising that spacecraft missions to Mars haven't all been successful. Sending people inside metal cans aimed at Mars isn't an easy task -- especially if those people want to return to Earth alive. But as more and more space programs target Mars as a destination, it looks increasingly likely that humans will make it there someday. Here are just a few milestones on the road to Mars.

The Inspiration Mars Foundation is planning a roundtrip manned mission to Mars (non-stop, so no landing) that would last about 501 days, launching in 2018. A press conference to announce the details will be held on Feb 27th. [url]
When the Phobos-Grunt mission failed to reach Mars orbit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested some severe punishments (but no death penalty!) for whoever was to blame. The mission had planned to return soil samples from Phobos (one of Mars' moons), but the spacecraft never left Earth orbit due to a computer programming error. [url]
Valery V. Polyakov spent 438 continuous days in space aboard Mir and returned to Earth in 1995. That is the longest anyone has stayed in space in a single trip (others have been in space for more time, but over multiple trips), and it demonstrates that it's possible to survive in microgravity for the approximate amount of time it might take to go to Mars. [url]
Elon Musk has a vision of a public-private joint venture to establish a human colony on Mars. Musk is obviously promoting the SpaceX brand with this kind of public statement, but he also says that a viable Mars mission would need about $36 billion to get off the ground. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: astronauts, elon musk, mars, mir, phobos, space, space exploration, spacecraft, valery polyakov
Companies: inspiration mars foundation, spacex

9 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

anonymouse, 25 Feb 2013 @ 5:25pm

food
I think this is going to be the biggest challenge, to send at least 4 people you are going to have more than 3 years supply of food on board and also have tons of water. I would suspect that the best way to do it would be to build something on earth in modules and send it up and connect it all together, maybe having a good few trips to supply the ship with water and food and other essentials. If they can build something big enough they could dock it at the space station when they return for refitting and possibly use it as a part of the ISS until it was needed for another mission.

Do spaceships last in space or do they need to be replaced /maintained , i.e radiation bombardment etc does it do damage.

Also what have they done in the way of research since the movie aliens was released , is there any chance of alien biological elements returning on the outside of the craft.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wally (profile), 25 Feb 2013 @ 5:35pm

There is only one man all US Citizens..and possible the world should ever blame for the fact that humans have not stepped one foot onto the surface of Mars by now...Richard Milhous Nixon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Daniel Brenton (profile), 25 Feb 2013 @ 5:52pm

Re: DailyDirt - Going To Mars
I've been seeing these big, over-the-top ideas of sending people to Mars "one way" to settle there, and now the Inspiration Mars venture, and I'm actually sort of glad we didn't lunge straight into a Mars effort after Project Apollo.

Having our astronauts and cosmonauts spend these endurance flights in space over the last 25 years has taught us a tremendous amount about how the human body reacts to weightlessness. One of the latest findings in space medicine is that the eyes are effected by long-term weightlessness, which naturally would be a deal-breaker for long-term exploration.

We have some huge engineering challenges to face (for instance, entry and landing on Mars with vehicles large enough to return to orbit is extremely complicated, because of how thin the Martian atmosphere is, or for that matter effectively dealing with solar radiation for the duration, be it with very heavy shielding or some other strategy).

Going straight to Mars after Apollo would have been a mistake, as much as I would have wanted to see it when I was a kid.

-- Daniel
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2013 @ 7:54pm

"The Inspiration Mars Foundation is planning a roundtrip manned mission to Mars (non-stop, so no landing) that would last about 501 days"

Ugh, that would have to be the most boring thing ever. 8 months of travel time, see Mars from orbit for a little while without even landing, 8 months of travel time.

It would be like taking an international flight to Paris, getting close enough to see the Eiffel Tower, and then having the flight turn around without landing. Multiplied by about 500.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Martin, 26 Feb 2013 @ 12:08am

I try to believe an actual trip to Mars to be true but it's hard after the Apollo fraud.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2013 @ 4:22am

Will there even be a mars left to go to in 2018? There is one honkin-big comet that could slam into Mars in 2018, so the planet might be obliterated late next year.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
letherial (profile), 26 Feb 2013 @ 8:34am

Re: food
It would probably be easier to send supply's first. Timing a trip to mars can make it a relatively short trip, 9 months or so, the rest of the food and the way back can be sent first followed by people.

Alot of what curiosity did to land paved the way for this.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Daniel Brenton (profile), 2 Mar 2013 @ 12:19pm

Re: Re: DailyDirt - Going To Mars
Everyone, thanks for the "last word" props. Appreciate it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Andrew Demms, 4 Apr 2013 @ 3:17pm

Tesla Motors
I saw this posted and wanted to get thoughts: "Is this a credible product? Tesla Motors is under Fed investigation for bribery & corruption; Musk stole the company from Martin the founder; Tesla has been sued many, many times for misdeeds; Tesla took taxpayer $$ yet hired off-shore workers and fired NUMMI union workers; Their batteries blow up when they get wet or overcharge; They owe more $ than they can ever pay back. The Leaf does the same thing for $100k less. The billionaire owner got free tax money without earning it; Goldman, K&L Gates, KPCB & their investors put in fake car orders and fake stock buys to pump the stock; They lied to San Jose, Downey, New Mexico and many cities about building a factory in each; The CEO cheated on his wife & business partners; The CEO hires magazines to write glory-stories about him; Telsa has 30 Indian bloggers hired to write fake user postings; The EMF from the car is measured to cause biological damage; They changed the prices on customers after they ordered; They never get their costs right; each car coming off the line has problems according to Musk himself; Selling 4K cars after a decade is a pathetically small # for such
a run-of-the-mill electric car; They announce they �intend� to pay the loan back early, yet do not actually pay it back even though the owner has a billion dollars; Former staff have accused the CEO of
everything from spying to harassment; The public calls the car the �Solyndra-Mobile� and say it is an
"Un-American Product�; It is made, and priced, by and for Stanford elitist yuppie rich boys; The same six
writers that support Tesla have been shown to be paid shills; All of this is well documented. Wouldn�t
anyone would be ashamed to drive a Tesla?"
[ link to this | view in thread ]