The last few weeks have been especially intense for space exploration. On November 12, the module Philae, of the European Space Agency (ESA), became the first human ingenuity land on a comet, after separating from the Rosetta probe, launched a decade ago. And this Friday, NASA managed to successfully complete the first test flight of the Orion capsule, as the director of the US space agency, Charles Bolden, described as “the beginning of the era of Mars. “
With similar to that of the Apollo spacecraft that took us to the moon shape, Orion holds carry four astronauts, and an important realization of the most ambitious commitment of human beings so far in his desire, or need, to explore other worlds; the first step to send a manned mission to the Red Planet from 2030.
The capsule is also the symbol of a new era in the space race in the United States, which, by removing its shuttle fleet in 2011, lost the ability to perform manned in a vehicle owned and has depended since the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station ( EEI), with a cost of about 70000000 dollars per trip.
Orion is the symbol of a new era in space race United States The launch of Orion has revitalized enthusiasm for space exploration and has injected a large dose of optimism between those who think that our destiny as a species unavoidably involves achieving set foot in other planets. But enthusiasm is not unanimous. Beyond considering a economic waste any expense in space as our own world remains just living for millions of people, the scientific community is also split.
Many experts believe that attempts to send men and women into space suppose, in the end, a burden on other scientific advances more feasible, cheaper and more fruitful, and maintain the future of space exploration is still, at least for now, robots and Philae.
The ISS in the current three astronauts orbiting the Earth, and has already been accessed by about 200, is perhaps the great example for critics of space exploration with humans. As pointed out by the newspaper The Guardian American Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, the station has not contributed to science nothing really important, with the exception of an experiment with cosmic rays that could have been performed flawlessly with an unmanned satellite. “The only real technology developed in the ISS has to do with the technology needed to keep humans in space, something that no sense when you understand that keeping humans in space does not lead to Nowhere, “the scientist.
Here, Weinberg notes that only a few days after, in 2004, then US president George W. Bush announced the recovery of programs for back to the Moon and travel then to Mars, NASA was forced to make large budget cuts for astronomical research in general and for projects not trupulados in particular. “The vast majority of the major discoveries made in the Solar System, such as the discovery of large hydrocarbon lakes on Titan, a moon of Saturn, have conducted the probes and robots”, indicates the British astronomer Martin Rees.
The human value
The need for explore with humans, however, remains essential to many scientists. He also astronomer Ian Crawford, for example, highlights the contrast between “relatively little” provided by the robot Opportunity since it landed on Mars in 2004, and the achievements of the three astronauts of Apollo 17 for the Three days spent on the Moon: “They walked more than 30 kilometers on the lunar surface, managed to drill a hole three feet, stopped working a lot of instruments and brought to Earth 76 kilos rocks to be studied. “
The only future of the human being goes through
travel into space.” Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking, probably the most popular live scientist when it comes to looking at the cosmos, it is also very clear: “The robotic missions are much cheaper and provide us more information, but fail capture the imagination of the people Similarly, nor are able to extend the human race into space, something that should be our long-term strategy. If we want to survive for another million years, we have to go where no one has ever yet. Life on Earth is increasingly threatened for hazards and disasters such as global warming, nuclear weapons, genetically modified virus … I think the only future of the human being goes through travel into space. “
These are the keys relaunched project to send humans to Mars, and the effervescent time now living space exploration.
Why Mars?
Mars is the planet more accessible from Earth (Venus is tens of millions of miles closer, but the infernal temperatures and corrosive atmosphere make it a destination much more complicated), and similarities with our homeworld (rocky surface, a possibility that has ever harbored similar to Earth’s atmosphere, gravity only 38% of the Earth) make in the ideal candidate when ask a hypothetical colonization interplantearia.
Both circumstances have made the Red Planet one of the most important objectives of the space research, and are currently two bots (Curiosity and Opportunity) tireless explore the Martian surface. They are joined by several probes into orbit ( Odyssey and Reconnaissance , NASA; Mars Express , of ESA, the Indian probe Mangalyaan ) that continuously send data to Earth
Since 1960 the Soviet Union hurl the Marsnik 1 . the first device designed to travel to the Red Planet (disintegrated at launch), the secrets of Mars have been unraveling one after another, including the most anticipated: the existence of water. For where there is or was water, may have life as we understand it.
The dream of great Travel
manned to Mars have been the subject of scientific discussion from the fifties, and various space agencies develop now or developed in past projects ranging from conducting short missions to the founding of colonies on the planet. Mars is the second destination after studying for exploration of the Moon.
The first detailed technical study of a trip to Mars was made Wernher von Braun (The Mars Project 1952). The idea was to send a fleet of ten ships with 70 crew members each, and three aircraft that posarían on Mars, in a project that required a total of 400 pitches. Later, in 1962, the Empire project Marshall Space Flight Center NASA also included studies of manned missions to Mars, by launching eight rockets Saturn V and the construction of a ship in Earth orbit or throwing a hypothetical ship with subsequent technology to Saturn.
1989 the then US president, George HW Bush, announced a Space Exploration Initiative, with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars, and the International Space Station as the main axis. However, the United States Congress canceled the project by its high cost.
Also Soviet Union explored the possibilities of a trip manned to Mars with the so-called complex Marciano Piloted a proposal for Mikhail Tikhonravov developed between 1956 and 1962. Back in the sixties, the USSR carried out the TMK project, including orbital trips to Mars and trips with amartizaje . Another project was the MEK, that began in 1969.
After the Cold War
Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990, NASA has developed numerous assessment programs to Mars, including several iterations of NASA Design, the Vision for Space Exploration and the Hundred Year Starship.
Russia, meanwhile, is developing an orbiting space station called MARPOST (Mars Orbital Piloted Station), while the Aurora Programme of the European Space Agency, launched in 2001, aims travel to in 20 years. The main objective of Aurora is to develop and then carry out a European long-term plan for the robotic and human exploration of the solar system; a plan in which Mars, the Moon and asteroids constitute the main objectives.
In 2006, NASA launched the Constellation Program to prepare manned missions to Mars, and a year later ESA set 2025 as the year to send its first manned mission.
The biggest mock space voyage to Mars hast done now concluded last November 4, 2011 with “arrival” to the Land of the “martenautas” six volunteers who remained isolated from the outside world in a module in Moscow during the 520 days of the Mars experiment 500, the European Space Agency. The project participants performed more than a hundred experiments, had to repair faults and made even simulated walking on the Red Planet.
The new roadmap
On day 3, the NASA announced that it is developing the technology needed to send humans to Mars in the 2030s Five years earlier, they plan to get another milestone. . first manned mission to an asteroid 2025
The US space agency official was so recovery of one of the great challenges in the conquest of space ” Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and for robotic and human exploration, as we expand our presence in the solar system, “he said.
After the spacecraft and rovers have studied Mars for over 40 years NASA considers it is already possible to draw a roadmap to bring the next big challenge, the journey manned
Orion
The first step of the way he this Friday, with the successful first test flight of the Orion capsule, a ship designed to accommodate a four crew, and will serve in the future to carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit, and perhaps to Mars.
After first unsuccessful attempt Thursday technical and weather problems, Orion went to dawn Friday aboard a Delta IV rocket, from Cape Canaveral (Florida), and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean four hours and twenty minutes later, as planned, about 965 kilometers from San Diego (California).
The capsule splashed down on its base in a stable position after performing two orbits the Earth, An elliptical similar to the International Space Station height, about 380 miles, and another at a distance fifteen times greater. This flight was crucial for test the heat shield of the ship, that entry into the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 32,000 miles per hour and is exposed to temperatures of More than 2,200 ° C, and analyze the radiation to potentially exposed astronauts.
The capsule reached the greatest distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to transport humans in the past four decades The capsule reached a distance of 5,793 kilometers of the planet, as it has traveled any ship space designed for transporting humans in the last four decades since the Apollo missions with which he managed to reach the moon.
Equipment NASA and two ships of the US Navy recovered the capsule to then move it to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and analyze the data collected by more than 1,200 sensors flight and telemetry.
Orion behaved in his brief trip some objects symbolic, as a microchip with more than a million names; a fossil dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex Science Museum of Denver (Colorado, USA), music and poetry.
The capsule, built by Lockheed Martin for NASA weighs 21 tonnes launch and 8.6 tons single capsule, after freeing the service module. With a truncated cone, the ship measures 3.3 meters high and five across, with two and half times the volume of the capsules that were used in the Apollo program.
What now?
Currently, without the generous financial resources they had during the Apollo era, NASA can only advance to a very slow pace. The launch of Orion has been an important step on the way to Mars, but for now, the US space agency not yet have funding for an authentic program manned missions to the Red Planet. And the other big project, asteroid closer to the Moon so it can be reached by astronauts (the ARM mission Redirect Asteroid Mission, scheduled for 2020), has the support of US President Barack Obama, but still lacks the approval of Congress and the necessary budget.
Moreover, the project related to Orion has raised strong criticism. Space Frontier Foundation (Space Frontier Foundation), for example, stated that 3.900 billion of the initial phase of the contract for the ship doubled program functionality NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) of 500000000 dollars, and denounced the fact that NASA contract with Lockheed Martin to be a contract benefit, prone to exceed budgets and cause delays while COTS program contractors are paid only on the successes method.
The problem of radiation
One of the main problems who has faced the Orion capsule, extensible to draft a trip hypothetical manned Mars, is the effect of radiation.
As the BBC explains Mark Geyer, director of Orion Program NASA ” We are talking about crossing regions of radiation belt Van Allen, because we are fifteen times higher than the International Space Station. The EEI not have to deal with radiation, but we do, and also any vehicle to go to the moon. That is a very big for computers problem, since processors are now very small, ie, very good for speed, but very susceptible to radiation. “
What is ‘Mars One’ ?
Mars One (Mars One, in Castilian) is a private television project carried out by Dutch researcher Bas Lansdorp and encouraged by physicist Gerard ‘t Hooft, for establish a permanent human colony on Mars.
The plan is to send communication satellites the planet in 2018 and, after several steps, throw in 2023 a first team of humans on Mars to live there permanently. A new team of four astronauts would be sent every two years.
Mars One is trying to get sponsors and investors in a kind of reality show that would include some elected by the public astronauts. It has been estimated that only put the first four astronauts on Mars would cost approximately 6,000 million dollars.
In a separate section on the establishment of the colony, the project provides that, if achieved, after 130 months, spare parts for repairs would account for 62% of the mass of cargo shipped from Earth. In this scenario would continue sent supplies for the settlers, that also develop other needs for technology can be is not ready.
Plants lethal
A group of scientists at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston (USA), published last October’s conclusions on the feasibility a project based on the premise of Mars One. At the rate can now launch a spacecraft, manned trip from Earth to Mars and back, in the best conditions away and gravity is calculated that lasted 400 to 450 Earth days. And, as the MIT study, with current technology the crew of an alleged expedition to the Red Planet die in the first 68 days books.
The reason, explained Sydney Do, member of the team that prepared the study and doctoral student at MIT, is that plants are planned with the colonists to feed “would produce excess oxygen, which would lead to suffocation crew “. To avoid this, Do indicates that plants should go someplace isolated module or should employ a system to eliminate the extra oxygen accumulated, which t Hodaviah not exist.
With current technology, the crew of an alleged expedition to Mars would die in the first 68 days of travel The MIT team has over a decade conducting research on plans for space missions and has collaborated with NASA when the US space agency earlier this century was raised again on a mission to the Moon and build a permanent base, project fell through.
The space race in the XXI century
With or without humans, the fact is that interest in space exploration has experienced a remarkable boom recent years, despite the global economic crisis which leads gripping the planet from a decade ago. In addition, the space race has long ceased to be exclusive to traditional great powers (USA, Russia, and later Europe). Other countries (India, China, Japan) have begun to make history beyond our planet, resulting political credit and propaganda.
Since last September, for example, the Indian probe Mangalyaan orbiting Mars, a milestone if we consider that this mission has made India the first country in Asia and the fourth world getting get there, and the only thing that ever has in the first attempt. Mangalyaan is also one of the cheapest interplanetary missions of the story, with a budget “low cost” of $ 74 million, compared with 671 million the Maven mission, NASA, which reached Mars orbit 48 hours before .
51 attempts to reach Mars made so far, only 21 have been successful. The total duration of the Indian project was three years, including the nine months it took the Mangalyaan reach Mars. The latest NASA Mars mission needed six years. USA had four failures and Russia two before successfully completing their missions to the Red Planet. China and Japan have not succeeded yet. Japan tried in 1998, but its satellite was lost in space in 2003. China launched a satellite to Mars in 2011 in a joint mission with Russia, but neither reached its target.
Mars is not in Anyway, the only destination that space exploration is focused today. A list of the major milestones achieved so far this century:
- 07/12/2000 The Russian rocket Proton-k into orbit the Zvezda module. that makes living the ISS.
- 11.02.2000. Three astronauts, two Russian Sergei Krikaliov and Yuri Guidzenko, and one American, William Shepard, become the first inhabitants of the ISS.
- 23.03.2001. Russian space station Mir sinks in the South Pacific.
- 30.04.2001. The American billionaire Dennis Tito became the first space tourist.
- 01.02.2003. the ferry Columbia disintegrates in flight. They perish seven crew members.
- 02.06.2003. The Mars Express, probe to Mars, is the first ESA mission to another planet.
- 10.06.2003. The NASA Mars exploration resumes. Launch an unmanned spacecraft with the robot Spirit (“Spirit”) on board.
- 15.10.2003. China space launch its first manned spacecraft, Shenzhou.
- 31.01.2004. The spacecraft Opportunity (NASA) lands on Mars.
- 21.06.2005. Russia launched from a nuclear submarine “space sailboat” Cosmos-1, powered by solar wind.
- 26.07.2005. USA launches the ferry Discovery to the ISS. For the first time, a woman was the commander of the flight.
- 19.01.2006. The Atlas rocket propels the capsule New Horizons (NASA) to Pluto.
- 14.09.2007. Japan launches first lunar exploration mission.
- 25.09.2008. China launched its third manned space mission, the Shenzhou VII, with three astronauts on board. One, Zhai Zhigang becomes the first to make a spacewalk.
- 22.10.2008. India successfully launches first unmanned lunar probe, the Ch andrayaan I.
- 14.05.2010. Last shuttle mission Atlantis to the ISS.
- 24.02.2010. The ferry Discovery part to the ERA in his last mission.
- 18.03.2011. The probe Messenger NASA enters the orbit of Mercury.
- 13.02.2012. Maiden flight of the rocket Vega, first spacecraft of ESA.
- 16.06.2012. China launches manned Shenzhou IX, with the first taikonauta wife, Liu Yang.
- 12.28.2013. Russia successfully launches first space rocket Soyuz light 2.1v.
- 09.25.2014. Yelena Serova first century Russian cosmonaut traveling to the ISS.
- 12.11.2014. The Philae, ESA, robot becomes, after shake the Rosetta probe, the first human ingenuity to land on a comet (67P).
(With information from Efe, NASA, ESA and Wikipedia)
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