NASA News: Manned Mission to Mars Can Reach Goal in a Few Days?
In what could be the most shocking yet spectacular comments ever made about the manned mission to Mars that NASA is planning to accomplish sometime in the next decade, an expert said it is possible to reach the Red Planet in just a few days.
A new video released by NASA titled "Going Interstellar" featured scientist Philip Lubin wherein he said there is no reason that the world cannot see man reaching Mars in a couple of days. "There are recent advances that take this from science fiction to science reality. There is no known reason why we cannot do this," he said.
As moviegoers and space fans already know, Hollywood took the manned Mars mission to another level with "The Martian," and it appears that NASA may have the power to shorten the lengthy preparations for the much-anticipated mission. For Lubin, nothing is impossible. On the other hand, there is no confirmation if the rest of the people and scientists behind the project agree with Lubin's insights.
Lubin, along with his team from the University of California at Santa Barbara's Experimental Cosmology Group, has been given the authority to explore the capabilities of photonic propulsion. According to CNET, the team is investigating how Earth-orbiting lasers can possibly push spacecraft faster with the power of photons.
Called electromagnetic acceleration, the process may be the key to traveling through space faster, allowing man's Martian dream to be a reality. Not only can the process potentially bring earthlings closer to Mars but it can also open doors for exploring other areas in deeper space.
Meanwhile, new photos revealed by NASA's New Horizon's mission suggest that Pluto's moon Charon may have been home to an ocean that was frozen over time. The images, taken during the New Horizons spacecraft in July last year, show fractures that suggest an expansion may have occurred in Charon's surface sometime in its lifespan.
Charon's outer layer is mostly composed of water and ice and the images suggest that the moon was once warm, allowing for an ocean to be created in the surface. However, Charon started getting cooler, resulting to the ridges and valleys that were created as the surface froze and expanded.