Oct. 2010. Subsequent to its discovery of water on Mars, Nasa intends to send man on a one way mission to the red planet. The feasibility studies are already underway to determine if astronauts could permanently settle down and establish human colonies in Mars. The billion pound mission, code named ‘Hundred Years Starship’ is led by the Ames Research Center, one of Nasa’s main research centers based at California. Pentagon is also supposedly involved in the project which is associated with advanced defense research project.
The project estimated to be £7 billion and is stated to be achieved by 2030. Funding though looks to be problematic; efforts are already underway to ensure it. Billionaires including Larry Page, the Google founder have been asked to fund the project. Ames director Pete Worden said that he hoped to form a Hundred year Starship fund with many billionaires.
The Australia based Herald Sun reported that Nasa was already looking for volunteers to fly to Mars. The journey to Mars would take at least nine months and they would fly with the understanding that they would never return to earth. Nuclear powered rockets could however be expected to make the journey in four months. The mission is directed only at one way trip so as to cut costs which would otherwise be prohibitive. The cost associated with bringing four astronauts back to earth is as much as that required to fly 20 of them in there.
Although supplies would be sent to them to ensure self-sufficiency, given the harsh conditions with sub zero temperatures and thin atmosphere, the mission is surely a grueling one. Supply of oxygen would be an important one, given the fact that carbon dioxide is abundant. Also synthetic biology, alteration of human genome, which is basically tinkering with the fundamentals are also likely to be carried out.
Ironically the discovery of water was made after the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit got stuck in wet ground. Reporting in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Nasa said the liquid was very likely to be formed from melting snow. Soluble minerals like hematite, silica and gypsum were dissolved in the water.
