NASA News: Outline of Three-phase Plan for Mars Journey
NASA has released its three-phase plan to put humans on Mars in the 2030s and the outline will be discussed with the Congress and its international partners.
NASA on Thursday published an outlined titled "NASA's Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration," which contains the agency's three-phase plan to land astronauts on the Red Planet come the 2030s. The said outline will also detail what resources need to be prepared and what tasks need to be done to accomplish the giant Mars goal, according to Information Week (IW).
As part of the preparations for the journey to Mars, NASA will need to work in tandem with both its private and international partners. It will also have to collaborate with 12 other space organizations aiming to go beyond their boundaries in space, the report details.
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Although NASA knows the journey to Mars will not be an easy feat, it says the mission itself is realistic.
The first phase in NASA's plan for the mission to Mars is the Earth Reliant exploration. The agency currently uses the International Space Station to conduct experiments that would help shed light on humans' survival in space.
The second phase called Proving Grounds involves NASA reaching the cislunar space — or the space around the Earth's moon — to validate everything that the astronauts will need to travel, work, and thrive in the Red Planet. NASA will see if it would be possible to create self-sustaining habitats in space, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
The third and final phase of NASA's outline is the Earth Independent phase, in which astronauts are expected to reach either Mars or just its moon. NASA aims to establish a "sustainable human presence in deep space," according to NASA Human Exploration and Operations associate administrator William Gerstenmaier, the report relays.
As of now, NASA is still ironing out all the steps to the Mars mission for the 2030s. The space agency thinks the journey to the Red Planet will help humans figure out ways to improve living conditions on Earth.
