Roadmap To Mars Unveiled By NASA

Document titled “NASA’s Journey to Mars Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration,” the excursion is broken down into 3 divide phases, painting a picture of the incremental scientific advances needed to land humans on the Martian surface. That NASA has ambitions for a manned mission to the Red Planet is already well known, but the space agency has now unveiled in greater detail how it plans to make such a mission reality.

William Gerstenmaier says that, “NASA’s strategy connects near term activities and capability evolution to the journey to Mars and a future with a sustainable human presence in deep space,” associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters.

The first of NASA’s steps to Mars falls under the title “Earth Reliant,” and centers on research to be carried out on the International Space Station as known as ISS. In this micro-gravity test bed, the agency will continue developing technologies aimed at amending human health to prepare for manned missions to deep space.

In the second stage, NASA will carry out manned missions in cislunar-space, that is the area between the Earth and the Moon or the Moon’s orbit. Dubbed “Proving Ground,” this phase will imply developing and formalizing capabilities required to allow humans to live in environments further away from our home planet, such as on a certain dusty, red planet.

The final stage, called “Earth Independence,” is intended to capitalize on the advances in the previous steps to bring humans to the Mars vicinity, first to low-Mars orbit and possibly one of the planet’s moons, and then to touch down on the surface.

The phases are intended to address three hurdles NASA sees as fundamental in getting to Mars: transportation, working in space and staying healthy for survival. The agency will discuss the plan with congress and partners in the coming weeks.