The Planetary Society, the largest nongovernmental space advocacy organization in the world, is pressing NASA to get humans to Mars. The organization wrapped up two days of meetings to discuss the technical feasibility and cost of a Mars voyage and believes that it can be done within NASA’s current budget.
The society is calling for a crewed mission to orbit the Martian moon Phobos in 2033, followed by a human landing on the Red Planet in 2039. The plans echo a proposal made separately by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The “Humans Orbiting Mars” workshop was held on March 31 and April 1 and brought together 70 experts in a variety of fields to discuss various aspects of the proposed mission. According to the Planetary Society, the group reached a consensus on a variety of issues including NASA’s ability to conduct the mission under its current budget.
That cost estimate, however, assumes that NASA’s budget will grow with inflation and that the agency will “ends its lead role in the International Space Station,” according to a statement. The latter is, obviously, no small condition.
According to a panelists the 2033 mission would be one of the crucial early steps, mirroring NASA’s Apollo 8 mission which orbited the moon prior to the Apollo 9 landing.
The proposed mission to Phobos would last approximately 30 months with a year in orbit around the moon and nine months travel in each direction.
The attendees currently see political will as the primary hurdle standing between humans and Mars.
“In the past, when the question of humans to Mars came up, I would typically cite a number of major hurdles: biomedical, launch systems and so forth and as of today, I think that those risks have either been reduced or you know how to minimize them, and so I am at the same place that John [Logsdon] and Bill [Nye] [are], that I think the issue now is […] political will,” said Scott Hubbard, a professor in the Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of The Planetary Society’s board of directors according to Space.com.
While admitting that the political atmosphere makes such a trip by no means certain, there is hope that a strong scientific consensus may help to expedite things.
“While the conditions for another Apollo-era Kennedy moment don’t exist, we have a highly skilled scientific engineering and policy community that is eager to get going on sending humans to Mars. We believe the consensus points achieved during this workshop can get us moving down the path to the Red Planet,” said Dr. John Logsdon, workshop co-chair and professor emeritus, Space Policy Institute, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.
A blog post from the Planetary Society promises that as much material as possible from the two day workshop will be made available to the public and policy makers in the near future.
The Planetary Society also promises a shift from advocating for more advanced robotics in space to advocating for human exploration.
“We’re not doing this to drop off a report and then walk away—this is the beginning of a long process of engagement on the human spaceflight question. And that process will include a substantial level of outreach and feedback from the most important group: the members of The Planetary Society. Members will be hearing a lot more from me later in the year,” said Casey Dreier.
The effort will be helped considerably by the Planetary Societies very visible CEO Bill Nye.
“Getting humans to Mars is far more complex than getting to Earth’s Moon. But space exploration brings out the best in us. By reaching consensus on the right set of missions, we can send humans to Mars without breaking the bank,” said Nye.
