Human missions to Mars

We’re rapidly approaching the quarter mark of the 21st century, but instead of being at the brink of a radical transformative stage, such as the futuristic vision akin to Arthur C. Clarke’s Star Child from 2001: A Space Odyssey, we’re still throwing proverbial bones into the sky. China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonSuch is the feeling I get in the wake of three recent Moon missions, in which two spacecraft, Japan’s SLIM and Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, survived despite falling awkwardly onto the lunar surface,…

NASA is looking for volunteers willing to be trapped inside a simulated Martian environment that’s roughly the size of a two-bedroom apartment for a full year. Denis Villeneuve Had a Blast Building the Dune LegoThe space agency is now accepting applications for its second edition of CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog), which is scheduled to take place in spring 2025. The deadline for applications is April 2.A four-person crew will live and work inside a 3D-printed, 1,700-square-foot habitat that…

On Sunday, four researchers donned black jumpsuits and entered into a red world where they will spend a year living and working in a simulated Martian environment. Is Google's New $1,800 Pixel Phone Worth It? | Gizmodo ReviewNASA’s CHAPEA habitat, or Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, welcomed its volunteer guests this week, who are set to spend 378 days in the enclosed, Mars-like world to help the space agency prepare for future missions to the Red Planet.“I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to be a part of…

A commercial landing on Mars will have to wait a little longer as two private space companies updated their plan to touchdown on the Red Planet, delaying it by two years for reasons not made explicitly clear.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewSpeaking at the Humans to Mars Summit, which was held from May 16 to 18 in Washington, D.C., executives from private space companies Impulse Space and Relativity Space announced that their joint venture to Mars is now slated for launch…

NASA is setting up an independent review board to oversee the Mars Sample Return mission plans, in an effort to make sure the mission will be completed on time and—crucially—under budget.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewThe mission—set to be completed in 2033—entails picking up Martian rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover and bringing them to Earth. Should the mission be pulled off, they will be the first samples ever brought to Earth from another world, and in the…

One of the main questions surrounding humanity’s next giant leap into deep space is whether humans can thrive on missions far from Earth. A new theory says yes, but only in environments modeled deeply after our own planet.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewFather-daughter research duo Morgan Irons of Cornell University and Lee G. Irons from the Norfolk Institute dubthe idea “pancosmorio,” a word that means “all word limit,” in a paper published in Frontiers in Astronomy and…

Artist’s conception of an advanced space habitat. Illustration: Rick Guidice/NASAWith the success of the Apollo missions, NASA turned its eye to the prospect of offworld colonies. The space agency ran its “summer studies” at NASA Ames in 1975, allowing experts and artists to share their visions of what space-based colonies might look like. The resulting concepts were bold, including space habitats in which 10,000 people would “work, raise families, and live out normal human lives,” according to one of several NASA…

An artist’s impression of the DRACO spacecraft, which will feature the new nuclear thermal rocket engine. Image: DARPAOne of the bigger questions surrounding NASA’s interest in sending a crewed mission to Mars surrounds the best way to get there, and it appears the agency might have found its answer. NASA announced today that it will be developing a nuclear thermal rocket engine in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).The collaboration is called DRACO, or Demonstration Rocket for Agile…

Artist’s conception of an early Martian base. Image: NASANASA’s upcoming Artemis Moon program is serving as a stepping stone for an eventual crewed mission to Mars. A revised list of planning objectives details a strategy for accomplishing this daunting feat. The document, released Tuesday, servesas a blueprint for how we’ll eventually send humans to Mars. NASA has chosen to employ a “Moon to Mars” strategy, in which the space agency, with the assistance of commercial and international partners, will acquire the…

The Rosenberg Space Habitat is located within the school’s new, self-sustaining Future Park. Image: Institut auf dem RosenbergFor students at a boarding school in Switzerland, the curriculum now includes extraterrestrial architecture. The school has installed a 23-foot-tall, 3D-printed prototype of a space habitat that was designed with SpaceX rockets in mind. Exploring the universe and beyond is no small feat, but a major part of that adventure will involve building structures that are conducive to humans thriving in…