Getting humans to Mars and back will be a marathon, not a sprint

John Elbon unpacks how the space industry will make the mission to Mars feasible.

What would a human settlement on Mars actually look like? Scientists are busy trying to conceive models. Courtesy Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

Mars is at the centre of a global conversation about space exploration. Enthusiasm and excitement generated by ideas for advancing human space exploration are key to igniting our youth’s passion for space. I can see this passion is alive and well through programmes like Genes in Space. The competition challenges students to create DNA experiments to solve issues we might encounter as we explore deeper into space. The winner’s experiment will launch to the International Space Station from a site in the United States and that experiment will be conducted by astronauts on board.

Recently, five teams and eight young scientists were chosen as finalists in the inaugural Genes in Space competition here in the UAE. Alia Al Mansoori won the competition, which took place at the Global Space Congress. These students from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai were working to solve real issues we encounter in space. Alia’s winning experiment aims to study how exposure to space affects the health of live organisms at the cellular level. Students like her will one day be making groundbreaking discoveries that will enable humans to explore farther than ever before.

It’s an exciting time in the space industry as we build the world’s largest most powerful rocket to take us to deep space (called the Space Launch System), test new spaceships (such as the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle) and develop technologies for keeping humans healthy in deep space.

The Space Launch System features a unique combination of mature systems and advanced technologies and is capable of carrying more than twice the payload of any other launch vehicle into deep space.

Getting humans to Mars and back safely will be a marathon, not a sprint, which is why we advocate for a measurable, phased approach to going to Mars. Boeing, the company I work for, calls this “a path to Mars”.

“A path to Mars” is a scenario that reflects a four-step evolution of critical capabilities from the International Space Station to missions in the lunar vicinity in preparation for the journey of humans to Mars.

Phase zero is already underway. The International Space Station has sustained humans in low Earth orbit for 16 years, producing critical science and technology that will enable humans to live in deep space as well as providing benefits to humanity on Earth.

The space station lays the groundwork for global partnerships that will help us transition to working together on future platforms.

Phase one includes extending our reach beyond low-Earth orbit to cislunar space, the area around the Moon, as we begin cislunar operations and what we call proving ground missions.

In cislunar space we’ll prove the technologies we’ve been using and developing in low-Earth orbit. The journey to Mars will be a three-year round trip, so it’s critical that we prove our systems in deep space before taking the ultimate leap.

Boeing is already working on a full-scale prototype cislunar habitat demonstrator as part of Nasa’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 programme. The crew would spend this time in cislunar space evaluating habitability, logistics, operational procedures and vehicle systems in an environment similar to what will be experienced on the journey to Mars.

Building a habitat in cislunar space will offer opportunities for international partnerships and for lunar exploration and collaborative research. The habitat could also serve as a staging ground for governments and private companies that are interested in activities around or on the Moon that range from science to exploration to business and other exploration objectives.

The European Space Agency has proposed the concept of a Moon village, the concept being that different people will be living and working together on the Moon. This village could be a hub for science and even tourism. An established base would provide an opportunity for countries to work together and would open up opportunities to work with the private sector.

Nasa is working on a concept for how we could deploy a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. This telescope would allow Nasa to study the universe without the interference of stars that we encounter when observing from Earth. To deploy, Kapton film material would be spread out across the lunar surface and would serve as a robust, lightweight backbone for an array of low-frequency antennas that could be deployed by a small rover launched by the Space Launch System rocket. This same technology could also be applied to a similar Mars mission.

Phase two on the path to Mars includes missions to the moons of Mars or to the vicinity of the planet.

In phase two we’ll have three key categories of objectives: cislunar flight testing, learning how to work in space and keeping crews healthy.

There will be two main phases of operation. The first is the cislunar flight testing of exploration systems where we demonstrate that the Space Launch System and ground systems can insert both Orion (the capsule that will transport humans to Mars) and payloads into cislunar space.

The second is the demonstration that Orion and mission operations can conduct crewed missions in cislunar space and to demonstrate Mars-extensible systems and mission operations that reduce risk for future long-duration deep space missions with Extravehicular Activity.

In phase three, in the 2030s, we’ll travel to the surface of Mars. The vehicles and systems validated in cislunar space will be used to take the Nasa crew to Mars and back to Earth safely. The objectives in phase three include testing habitation and system functionality, testing orbit operations, validating robotic surface operations and demonstrating mission operations.

The men and women who are the first to go to Mars will be a crew who has trained for such a mission in cislunar space. Perhaps those crew members are sitting in a secondary school right now studying science, technology, engineering or maths.

Those men and women will have learnt how to survive in a hostile space atmosphere, provide their own medical care, grow their own food, engineer new tools and conduct research needed to improve their living conditions.

Sending humans to Mars – and returning them safe and well – is the goal. That means providing them with the best advantages to do more than survive – to thrive in deep space; returning with the experience and knowledge to take humanity even farther into the universe.

John Elbon is vice president and general manager of space exploration at Boeing Defense, Space & Security