The First Mission to Mars

[PaleoCowboy]

How is artificial gravity generated in the ERV for the return flight?

[gary2914458]

What exactly is the danger then? Impacts are certainly rare enough not to inhibit the first colonists of Mars. We already have the tech to build permanent habitats, e.g. the ISS or nuclear submarines for that matter.

[MithraisAugustus]

Any reason why the ERV couldn't at least be built and tested?

[yesiamanalien]

Hate to burst any bubbles but man has been to Mars and Mars isn't exactly devoid of life.

[StarWarsEdits]

@yesiamanalien Cool story bro.

[magicznyrafal]

I think that the first astronauts to Mars should stay there to die, have them prepare appropriate equipment, train and would have been the first colonists. Otherwise, will probably be like missions to the moon. After several flights, the whole enterprise has ceased to be profitable.

[HostileRick1]

wtf that ship design is perfect u dnt need that much room to live its bigger than a jailcell witch i also will add so yea and if ur goena say 6-8 months will drive sum1 crazy then any1 sentenced 1-5 yrs in prison should go st8 to a looney bin since u go crazy in 6months of small spaces wtf how retarted can yunz be!wtf settling on mars would be easy has hell. all u would need is to bring a few plants and animals and u wouldnt need to leave not at all.terra forming mars would be also easy

[StarWarsEdits]

Why so certain?

[cybermarsactual]

put three dudes in an airstream for six months and see what happens. This should will show you how lame this plan is. Duh losing.

[posada432]

It won't be the Ares V, it will be the Falcon Heavy.

[samysasy419]

Im sorry, but that spaceship can not go to Mars. The ship is fine, but the size is not, a first mission to mars would probably require 4 to 8 astronauts, and that ship is big because for all of them, but not big enough to sustain them for 6 to 8 months. These astronauts will spend half a yr in space, they need room to move around and not be always near their fellow astronauts, or they might go crazy, can u imagin spending half a yr in a closed space with the same people, it would be like prison.

[gary2914458]

@samysasy419 I won't try to say that the trip to Mars wouldn't be difficult. It will try an astronaut's patience. The hab depicted here is 8 meters in diameter and has two floors. The baseline mission depicted here would carry 4 astronauts.  So imagine sharing a small house for 6 months. As supplies run out, it becomes more and more spacious. The analogy to prison is a good one. Yet, too many people think astronauts would go crazy.

[gary2914458]

@gary2914458 People have survived in prison, U-boats, long ocean voyages under much worse conditions with little hope of reward afterwards, yet maintained their sanity. The astronauts undertaking this voyage have the promise of exploring a new planet and being greeted at home as heroes. They will be able to contact people on Earth through video messages and email. Furthermore, astronauts would be subjected to screening and would train with their crew mates years in advance.

[grekridea]

@samysasy419 You do know that MULTIPLE tests have already been done here on Earth for this exact mission for the exact amount of days and the astro's did fine right?

[samysasy419]

@grekridea Yes, but no environment on Earth resembles Mars' in the least bit, and simulated, and artificial environments only go so far. All we can do now is speculate, we are no where near going to Mars. We're not even gonna go there in 2030, maybe in the 2040s, but not any time sooner. As of now, there is no single nation on Earth that can fund a 4 to 8 manned mission to Mars. The best we can do is send automated robots.

[gary2914458]

@samysasy419 It is not a matter of funding. The NASA design reference mission 3.0 had an estimated cost of $50 billion. Previously, $5 billion a year was spent on the shuttle program. If a design architecture is chosen, and not changed every 5 years, the funding is already in place to develop such a mission on a decade timescale. Personally, I'm in favor of a one-way mission where the costs are cut even more.

[samysasy419]

@gary2914458 Also, I would like to bring up the fact that no nation has ever done tests on long term affects of humans in space, we need atificial gravity or else we won't be able to send anyone anywhere, and were atleast 2 decades from making artificial gravity. A one way mission to Mars would never work, here's why: Mars has been the bulls eye for asteriods for thousands of years, it deosn't have a strong atmosphere, so most meteors hit it, instead of buring up in the atmosphere like on Earth.

[gary2914458]

@samysasy419 The long term effects of zero g are well documented from time spent on space stations. The longest continuous time ever spent in zero g is 438 days. Granted, the effects of Martian 0.38g are not well understood, but as long as physical activity is maintained there is little reason to think they cannot be overcome. As you can see in the video, artificial gravity can be generated by relatively simple means. It is not even strictly necessary if the trip is 6 months.

[gary2914458]

@samysasy419 The frequency of meteorite collisions is so small as to be almost completely negligible. Most spacecraft in empty space go their entire lifetime without suffering damage. Other risks are far more concerning.

[samysasy419]

@gary2914458 I'm not talking about the spacecraft being hit by a meteorite, I'm talking about Mars itself. There are literally thousands of tiny metereorite that com to Earth everyday, but we never get hit by it, because it usually all burns up in the atmosphere. Plus we still don't have the tech to build permanent habitats.

[kibbles2140]

oh i just love the music here. i hope to be one of the mars astronauts some day so thank you for this beautiful video. :' )

[maizimpguard]

at least the esa is planning a miision to mars

[MithraisAugustus]

Now, how do we make it happen?

[HORRORTV1]

Would it be possible to convert the carbon dioxide on Mars to breathable oxygen.

[StarWarsEdits]

@HORRORTV1 Yes, the beauty of this mission plan is that most of the oxygen required for the stay and methane fuel required to get back will be obtained by processing the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere with the reaction CO_2 + 2H_2-> CH_4 +O_2. All that is required to bring 8 tons of hydrogen instead of 112 tons of methane and oxygen.

[supertrinko]

It's the downside of such short stays of presidency, they don't want to do anything too long term as it'll mean they'll be out of office long before it's completed.

[DeejayDREAM]

We won't go to Mars till we develop new rocket engines, 6 months is far too long a journey, if we could get that down to 3 months and it was cost effective then we will go.

Plus it should be a International mission, not Russian, American European or Chinese but an International effort.

[aerexenn11]

what would the entire cost be? i gotta feeling it ain't gonna take few billions. at least 100bil if the mission is lucky.

[blueshift314]

@aerexenn11 I doubt it would cost that much. Most of the cost in the past was used for research, and since we have most of the information we need, the research wouldn't cost too much. A few billion could definitely do it. Also NASA, or any government agency for that matter, wastes a hell of a lot of money that they don't have to

[RazaTheHacker]

Obamas funding VASIMR now get with the program plus he didn't shut down the program he is just not launching the Ares V

[anisuthideyakoindu]

What's this lovely music?

There's a composer out there who made music called 'Martian March', for the first manned mission to the red planet, his name is

Wouter Joseph Smekens

don't know if it is available already

he's on CD BABY though(a little excerpt I found there, maybe it makes part of it:

MartianAngelzNBirdz)? Somebody knowing more?

[davisgreen2020]

This why the Ares V should NOT have been canceled ! This is Dr. Robert Zubrin´s " Mars Direct !" plan ! Oh yes the music is wonderful ! Used in the " Da Vinci Code..

[kenobr]

at 2.59 / 5.21 it looks the same as the toy story two intro

[rockstar377]

What idiot would land on an asteroid. There is usually not enough gravity to even walk on an asteroid. OBAMA is illegally stopping the development of the new rocket system without authorization from congress. OBAMA IS THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE US SPACE PROGRAM. GO HOME TO KENYA OBAMA!

[gary2914458]

@rockstar377 Please keep the bashing out. Asteroids have been a recognized valuable destination for a long time. They may contain valuable resources for further colonization efforts. We know very little of the composition and structure of asteroids, which would be very useful in case we ever had to to deflect an asteroid from an Earth-bound trajectory.

[LouistheHedgehog]

@gary2914458

Not to mention that Obama supports the Mars direct system.

[Armigo91]

@gary2914458

True, and concerning the gravity. They use trusters to bunnyhop around which they could do for hours before the astronauts suit pack runs out of rcs fuel. So they can walk (jump) on a asteroid without the danger of floating away.

But as for the composition of asteroid. There are trillions of asteroids in the solar system. Each leftovers of the same materials which made all the 8 planets.

So its obvious without a pattern of evidence to conclude we will find the same

Now,

[Armigo91]

materials here on earth. And because there are so many asteroid, it means there are also a diversity among them.

One asteroid can be made pure out of metallic materials, and another might be rocky each single one with different and other minerals or gasses.

Examining one asteroid for the purpose on how to reflect them or learn anything else then you would on any planets surface is basically a scam.

No matter what the asteroid is made from, any meassures on deflecting it work for all types of

[Armigo91]

scenarios,

a nuke will blow it into a billion pieces, no matter if its a iron or a rocky asteroid.

Gravity probes to change a asteroid trajectory always work, no matter what colored stone youll find in the asteroid.

Asteroids are all debris of the solar systems accretion disk, of which a bulk of those rocks formed the 8 planets.

We will find exactly on a asteroid what we find here on earth.Denying that logic is like saying no bear was around when the footprints are spotted in front of your door

[StarWarsEdits]

@Armigo91 We don't know exactly what it takes to explode an asteroid. Ideally, we'd want to deflect it instead of blowing it up. Obviously, asteroids are made of the same elements as the rest of the solar system, but what about their structure? Are they many rocks loosely bound together with dust or solid? What is the distribution of their chemical composition? Many missions could be done to sample the diversity of asteroids.

[Armigo91]

So I personally see absolutely no gain in reaching a asteroid. The only reason the scenario gets promoted because it requires less gravity to land on a asteroid making it very easy to accomplish.

Ok, if thats the reason for visiting asteroids to learn about alien microbes for example. Ok ill give it a go.

But that basically proves the point. We dont have the money or efficiency to get to mars so we choose to visit a asteroid instead.

Great thinking, not

[StarWarsEdits]

@Armigo91 A visit to an asteroid is a stepping stone to Mars. Many of the long-term habitation technologies will be tested on that mission. And Obama did say a Mars mission would follow the asteroid mission.

[lamorte42]

@gary2914458 Asteroid mining leads to gigantamoid spacestations leads to antimatter rockets leads to intersteller space vessels.

[trats20050]

@gary2914458 I know this is over a year ago comment, but man, good answer.

[mwngw]

@gary2914458 ...it's not bashing if it's the truth. The bastard is a traitor.

[guitarocist]

@gary2914458 your knowledge is sound. You have what i wish most people had on the internet or just in general....Intellect.

[samysasy419]

@rockstar377 Obama isn't the worst thing..., he has different priorities than other presidents like JFK. For instance, during JFK's presidency, the US was in a cold war with Russia, and the space race btween the 2 nations was the priority, and they were not in a recession. The space shuttle program hasnt really given us any advancements in the last 30 yrs, so the billions of $ spent on it is useless at this point. Instead, NASA is helping individual companies to develope their own spacecrafts.

[Zeus0Moose]

@rockstar377 No, he is certainly not the worst thing to happen to the space program. I'm GLAD we're finally commercializing Earth orbit. It's great that Obama wants NASA to focus on bigger and better things. With the commercialization of Earth Orbit, jobs will be created in space fairing companies, and NASA will not have to spend so much money using outdated tech like the Shuttle to just go to Earth Orbit. We're ready to go further. And so we should.

[KazigluTepes]

@Zeus0Moose:

I would agree...if he had actually put forward any big goals for NASA. He could have said, look, now you can focus on bigger things--like going to Mars. But he didn't. He just stopped funding, and left it. He did nothing to create a solid, powerful goal, which the space program really needs now. I'm not aware of any new funding for going to Mars (the most obvious choice of a new goal) despite the cuts to older programs.

At least we're still sending probe out, as we should.

[FreedomLiberty21]

I don't think funding (especially year to year increases) for NASA should be negotiable issue for any president, administration or Congress.

If the United States wants to maintain it preeminence in the world as THE leader in space exploration and technology well into the 21st century, it cannot compromise on scientific funding and full governmental support to NASA.

sadly in many ways it has :(

(the scrapped Constellation Program is a great example)

[rockstar377]

@FreedomLiberty21

The Constellation Program was not scrapped. Obama illegally and unconstitutional forced an end (for now) of the program. Read up on it yourself.

[tptcoynz]

Man awesome video. Well done. I hope I live to see this happen for real one day.

[vava54own]

Imagine.. just imagine if they found fossil on mars... How awesome would that be.

[jetaimemina]

What is this music? I know I've heard it rather recently, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe Mass Effect, or a recent sci-fi movie?

[gary2914458]

If the president's new budget passes, the Constellation program, (the Ares V, Ares I, Orion, and the moon base) all go down the drain.

[gary2914458]

Also, please no politics.

[vdizhoor]

But Zubrin is for that proposal. And he designed the mission that is in this clip. Nice soundtrack choice btw :). He sees value in not going for the moon again and focusing on Mars instead. It might not happen under the flag of Constellation, but it will happen.

[DASGLion]

yea i shame. but considering all the shit in the country right now, its not viable right now

[kestkr]

hes also increasing the budget to NASA by 6 billion and is looking instead towards putting a man on an asteroid and Mars...

[gary2914458]

The president's plan puts goals of missions to Mars and asteroids so far in the future that political events in the meantime are likely to derail the plan beyond recognition. This is what happened to the Constellation program. What is required is a strong, well-funded plan on a 10-year time scale so that political events, like a change of administration, cannot easily derail it.

[gary2914458]

Under Obama's plan, NASA won't even select a heavy lift launcher until 2015, and a ship carrying astronauts won't be built until 2025. The increase in funding is certainly great, but without a vigorous plan for beyond low-Earth orbit exploration in that time-frame to take advantage of it, it is in vain.

[TheFluffyDuck]

@gary2914458 Agreed. Before man had even set foot on the moon Nixon was already stripping Apollo funding.

Fucking Politicians no long term foresight just petty short term point scoring.

[Hypergalactica]

@gary2914458 I must say that even though I heavily endorse Zubrin's plan (while leaning toward semi-direct), I really think that 2020 is too soon. This will be the most difficult voyage ever - in all history - and while risks must be taken, a huge failure would mean the loss of $billions in development (also public negativity). IMHO we need a plan that can (somehow) function independently of political winds & get lots of private comp. on board. I think the key is FLEXIBLE HARDWARE. Mars by 2030!

[gary2914458]

@Hypergalactica I agree. Much of the hardware for Mars missions can also be used for the Moon, and NEOs. I wish there had been a strong commitment to build such habs, landers, rovers, heavy-lift launchers etc. NOW. The emphasis on promoting private companies to place humans in orbit was great, but pushing back plans for all these vehicles makes it more a step backward than forward.

[Joe35983]

@gary2914458 I Aggree, What yu say makes sense

[tlages]

@gary2914458 I love the enthusiasm, but it really cant be done in 10 years without bankrupting the United States. Plus we don't have the required technology to make it there in any reasonable time but I do agree the presidents plans are not in the best interest of NASA

[gary2914458]

@tlages In the 90s, NASA studied a plan called Mars Semi-Direct with an estimated cost of $55 billion over 10 years. Since NASA currently spends $5 billion a year on the shuttle program, such a mission wouldn't come close to bankrupting a country (of which NASA's budget is only 0.6% of the GDP). The technology depicted in this video has a 6 month journey to Mars. Compare that to the many months spent in oceanic crossings or encased in submarines endured in the past.

[Swasome10]

Nasa has plans for a perminate moon settllement in 2020

[grooveclubhouse]

shame really. were not even going back to the moon anymore.

[davebird32]

Awesome!

[dks13827]

gang, we are not going ANYWHERE anymore. darn shame, to say the least

[TheFluffyDuck]

One of the best (and most probable) 3d animations of this I have seen yet

[bemanos12345]

nice made

[CatfishHippyMan]

cool

[xFENRISx]

It's great to dream sometimes. I can't wait until we do this. We need direction.

[kingofmilwaukee]

Very nice!

[BMitzvahkid1994]

That's really cool!