MISSION ON MARS

MISSION ON MARS

INTRODUCTION:

“SPACE IS THERE, AND WE ARE GOING TO CLIMB IT “. From President John F Kennedy in 1962 set forth the goal of sending Americans to Moon within decade. But for most of the 30 yrs since the ‘Apollo Moon Landing’, the U.S space program has lacked a coherent vision of what its next target should be. The answer is simple: the exploration and settlement of Mars. And this goal is not beyond our reach.

No giant spaceship built with exotic equipment is required. Indeed all the technologies needed for sending humans to Mars are available today. Three robotic vehicles have successfully landed on the red planet: Vikings1&2 in 1976 and Mars pathfinder in 1997.

Going to Mars would be daunting .The planet never comes closer than 80 million kilometers and a round trip would take years. But scientists and engineers say that they have solutions to main technological challenges that a human mission would entail. The biggest obstacle is the enormous cost. Tallies of the cost of a human man mission to Mars range from $ 20 billion to about $ 55 billion.

How can you propel a manned spacecraft from earth orbit to Mars? Planners are considering several options each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Different propulsion systems are there viz. chemical, nuclear thermal, ion, MPD rockets, VASIMR. But the time required from Earth to Mars is much more using these propulsion systems. Using VASIMR the time required to go from Earth to Mars is 90 days.

But, Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel are suggesting a new way to rocket through space at record speeds; propel your craft using the products of fission reactions in thin metallic films of americium-242m(Am-242m). This approach might one day cut the travel time from Earth to Mars down from 8 to 10 months to a mere two weeks.


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