since at least it’s official. Space exploration is coming back into fashion. As in the years ’60, in the aftermath of the statements of JF Kennedy – it was 1962 – that promised the conquest of the Moon in a matter of a few years. Promise kept. Then not done anything so blatant, but there have been achievements outstanding, as the landing on a comet (mission Rosetta), and the mapping of Pluto, by the probe New Horizons. And today? The story is told in Barack Obama, the american president at the end of its double mandate, in an article that appeared yesterday on the website of CNN: “By 2030, we will arrive on Mars”. Of course, Mars is not the Moon, is much farther, however, there have been nearly 50 years since the first moon landing, and it is fair to assume that the space industry has made giant steps forward. Therefore, going to Mars would also be possible, but at what price?
Obama talks about the possibility of being able to sustain on his shoulders the grandchildren, waiting for the return of a new human mission to the red Planet. But for the moment it is still sci-fi. And although Nasa you work there from time to time, there are many questions to resolve. To the point that it is still passed to the assumptions of the one-way trip designed by Mars One, a project of the Dutch researcher Bas Lansdorp, which is expected in 2025. How to say: from there, astronauts can also send them to us, but then no one knows if, and how, will be able to return. Many have joined the project. Of those sentenced to death. There has in fact rethought the woman’s Pietro Aliprandi, the only candidate for the Italy, that a few days ago confirmed that he will give up at the start for the love of Elena, his future wife. Two years ago, the engineers of Mit in Boston were all too explicit: the conditions dictated by the protocol Mars One, the first colony of humans on Mars, they would not live more than 68 days. Point at the head. Obama would, therefore, five years after the promise of Lansdorp. But in a short amount of time so small it cannot be expected that the aerospace industry may have increased who knows to what extent its potential. In practice, if the is risky the idea of Lansdorp, may be equally ambiguous promise of Obama. The conditional tense is d ‘ obligation, because there is one thing on which there is no doubt: the future of space exploration can only take place thanks to the collaboration between the public and private sectors.
“We are already far ahead in this aspect,” reveals the head of the White House, “and, therefore, the arrival on Mars will require the continuous cooperation between the government and the innovators in the private sector”. SpaceX of Elon Musk and Boeing Dennis Muilenberg are doing seriously. For years. With two projects in the works: Space Launch System, the first, aims at the realization of a vector that can carry tons of material on the red Planet; Interplanetary Transport System, Muilenberg, consider a shuttle service to Mars-Earth.
The biggest question? The cosmic rays. The black beast of the conquest of mars. You know that hurt, but don’t know how much and what kind of obstacles may determine. The University of California has tried to estimate the consequences of a long exposure to this type of radiation, and the results are dismaying. Mice bombarded with the particles of oxygen and titanium ionized have confirmed a rapid and inexorable cognitive decline. The neurons no longer communicate as they should, and you can only imagine the serious repercussions that there might be mental: depression, anxiety, dementia, vision problems and hearing. In short, one day, almost certainly, the man will move the first step on the red dust of Mars, but we are only at the beginning. As it says in Matt Damon in Survivor, the protagonist of an odyssey the martian: “it remains for me a chance to use all my scientific knowledge to get out of it”.
No comments:
Post a Comment