Mars is our nearest neighbor in the solar system. Every two years Earth and Mars approach close enough in their respective orbits to allow us to send spacecraft to collect information on the red planet. But when might humans get a chance to explore the Martian surface? I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
“I don’t know when we will send human expeditions to Mars but I hope it will be within my lifetime.”
David Morrison is Director of Space at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
“The only other planet in the solar system besides Earth that we think could sustain a long term human presence is Mars. Mars has the basic requirements: abundant water, although it’s frozen in the form of ice, that could be used to produce oxygen, the ability to manufacture rocket fuels out of its atmosphere. It’s close enough to the sun to maintain reasonable temperatures and allow us to grow crops. There’s nowhere else in the solar system that meets those criteria. Mars has the tremendous attraction that we think it once had life or if it didn’t, we’d like to know why not since its climate was once so similar to that of the Earth. And Mars is a big planet. The surface area of Mars is as large as the land surface area of the Earth. There’s a lot of exploring to be done there and maybe someday humans will be able to permanently live there and live off the land.”
According to NASA, it’s unlikely that any manned missions will be sent to Mars until at least 2010. Part of the reason is the length of the journey: traveling to Mars takes about 6 months and once they’ve arrived, the explorers would have to remain on Mars for almost two years, waiting for the planets to approach each other again .
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.