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Race to Mars

In: English and Literature

Submitted By inty87
Words 1578
Pages 7
Tim Jones
Rita Kiry
Composition
6/23/2015

Race to Mars
The race to Mars has many competitors and is a long way from being a reality, but there are many technological advancements being made to get to Mars. The list of companies range from large known aerospace companies to small aerospace companies that have been around for only a short time to nonprofit companies that only want to manage the trip. Even though there is many companies striving to be the first to put a man on mars. They all will have the same hurdles to jump and space to travel through to get there. Mars has always been a wonderment to mankind. Human eyes have looked in its direction since nearly the 17th century, but it wasn’t till 1965 that a satellite was close enough to get decent pictures of its surface. The only thing those pictures did was raise more questions than answers (Lockheed Martin). The only thing left to do was to put something or someone on its surface. Lockheed Martin built the first orbiter that took pictures as well as the first two landers to touch the surface of Mars. Lockheed participated in the Mars Odyssey mission by building the orbiter in which the mission was named. The Odyssey later became the main means of communication for NASA to the rovers on the surface of Mars. Lockheed has no plans to quit being in the cutting edge of sending satellites to Mars. NASA started the race to Mars with the launch of Mariner 3 on November 5, 196 which was the first flyby spacecraft. The Mariner 4 however was the first successful spacecraft to make it to Mars only three weeks later. NASA sent 4 more flybys and the last of these became Mars’ first artificial satellite when it arrived and successfully went into orbit in 1971. The Viking missions were the next notable advancement when the two identical spacecraft each consisting of a lander and an orbiter successfully landed on the surface of Mars. The Viking mission was the last mission to Mars for 17 years. It was not until the 1990’s that we decided to go back to Mars. The designs from an Earth orbiting satellite was used and was retrofitted to handle a scientific payload. The mission ended in a tragic failure when communication was lost as Mars Observer was entering orbit around Mars. The Pathfinder mission was the first successful rover landing and was able to collect a massive amount of data from the surface of Mars. The Next two missions were complete failures the both were lost on arrival. The Mars Global Surveyor that arrived in 1997 operated longer than any other spacecraft in history. NASA currently has two identical rovers on the surface of Mars the Spirit and Opportunity they are on opposite side of the planet looking for any evidence of liquid water that may have been present in Mars’ past. All of the discoveries that has been accomplished from the spacecraft that NASA has sent to Mars has led them to the next level of exploration by sending a man to Mars. Just as the saying one must learn to walk before one can run NASA just completed an eight month long training camp. The six scientists lived in a dome a size no larger than 1,300 square feet. The scientists mimicked what the living conditions would be like when Mars is colonized. They were only to use limited amounts of water as well as electricity. They were also only allowed to go outside once a week to mimic a spacewalk in space suits that will resemble what will be used on the real mission. The real experiment was to track and monitor the emotional states of the scientists. The next planned is going to be a year long. As for the sending a manned mission to mars NASA’s first plan is to land a manned mission on an asteroid after it has been captured and redirected to orbit the moon. NASA will use their Space Launch System, or SLS to send everything into orbit. The SLS will also serve as a backup to the commercial and international partnerships to resupply the International Space Station as well as take NASA’s missions into Earth’s orbit and beyond. The first mission is aimed for lift off by the end of 2017. There is a fairly young company making very big waves in the aerospace field specifically in the field of rockets. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2001, who also founded Tesla Motors. The US has been paying the Russian government to shuttle our astronauts back and for to the International Space Station and paying them nearly 71 million dollars per seat. NASA has given the private sector until 2017 to come up with new innovations so the US is not reliable on the Russians. SpaceX has three different vehicles they are using they have two rockets and one spacecraft. The spacecraft named Dragon V2 is the first commercial craft to deliver supplies and personnel to the International Space Station. This is also the space craft that has put them in the forefront of the “taxi” service for NASA. According to Elon Musk “It’s essential to have the capability to transport our own people to space” he said especially given the political tension from the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine (associated press). The Falcon9 is the first of their two rockets. The Falcon9 was the first rocket designed in the 21st century its main focus was reliability. It has only two stages and the first stage will still be able to complete the mission even if one of the nine engines failed as well as reusable. The Falcon Heavy has three cores compared to the Falcon9’s single core. The Falcon Heavy has twenty-seven engines which lets it carry 117,000 pounds into space. It beats the payload of the next closest operational rocket by two times the weight. The only other rocket in history that could lift more weight into orbit was the Saturn V moon rocket which has not been in use since 1973. SpaceX is keeping their plans and development for their Mars missions close to heart and will plan on releasing more details later this year. However in a live Reddit AMA in January of this year Elon Musk revealed the Mars transport system will be a completely new design. He also stated that he will eventually want to create a settlement on Mars.
While there is another company that is looking to make colonies on Mars. Mars One claims that being able to settle Mars will advance our understanding of the origins of the solar system, the origins of life and our place in the universe. Mars One is not like the previous companies they do not have a development department, a place to build any spacecraft or have the huge support teams. The size of the company is not stopping them from going big they have in March 2014 Mars One started looking for a construction company to begin construction for their simulation Mars home for the crew. Mars One held a competition for universities for the chance to send their experiment to Mars on a lander mission. There was 35 different universities that entered the competition the winner was selected by a public vote. This was the first time the public got to decide what the payload was that was going to Mars. The winning team SEED will aim to germinate the first seed on Mars in order to help contribute to the life support system. The Payload will consist of an external container, which will provide protection from the harsh environment and an internal container which will hold seed cassettes. The seeds will stem from the plant Arabidopsis thaliana which is a plant that is commonly used in space plant studies. The data will be recorded and transmitted back to Earth. (Mars One, 2015) If the Seed team cannot stick to the schedule that Mars One has given to them the runner up of the competition will be selected. There has been many advancements for in the current race to Mars. The new designs of rockets that are capable of flying faster and carry more weight at a fraction of current costs. The effects of prolonged exposure to weightlessness to the human body and the human emotional state from being in small spaces for extended periods of time. The real tragedy is that we as the general public will not see any of the technological advances for quite a few years from now.

Work Cited

NASA. NASA. Web. 29 June 2015.
Dunbar, Brian. NASA. NASA. Web. 29 June 2015.
Howell, Elizabeth. "SpaceXu0027s Elon Musk to Reveal Mars Colonization Ideas This Year | Space.com." Web. 29 June 2015.
"Journey to Mars." NASA. NASA. Web. 29 June 2015.
"Mars Ahead? SpaceX Unveils Dragon V2 Capsule for Astronaut Trips - NBC News." NBC News. Web. 29 June 2015.
"SpaceX Advances Drive for Mars Rocket via Raptor Power." SpaceX Advances Drive for Mars Rocket via Raptor Power. Web. 29 June 2015.
"SpaceX Advances Drive for Mars Rocket via Raptor Power." SpaceX Advances Drive for Mars Rocket via Raptor Power. Web. 29 June 2015.
"Sustainability." 2001 Mars Odyssey · Lockheed Martin. Web. 29 June 2015. "Elon Musk Unveils Dragon V2 Spacecraft for Seven Astronauts." Associated Press, 30 May 2014. Web. 30 June 2015.

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