NASA has no money for landing people on Mars

Mars is so close and so far.

Mars is a very attractive target for humanity. With a stretch, it can be called an Earth-like planet, and many scientists and businessmen believe that even if they make an outpost of humanity in the solar system, it is on Mars. Ilon Mask said earlier that he considers the Red Planet a “backup storage” for civilization. That is why all his aspirations (almost all) are aimed at achieving the desired goal - the flight of man to Mars with the creation of a colony there. In this case, most likely, it will be a one-way ticket, the colonists simply will not have the opportunity to return.

NASA is working on a similar goal. For the past few years, the agency has been actively talking about exactly how Mars is going to reach and why it is needed. Initially, the plan included a flyby of the moon, transportation to the natural satellite of the Earth asteroid, and the creation of a base for a flight to Mars. Over time, some points (including the same transportation of the asteroid) had to be removed, but overall, the plan looked quite viable. Agency representatives tirelessly showed slides, telling about the different stages of the implementation of their program. Well, now it turns out that NASA simply does not have the money for all this.

According to the plan, flights to Mars were to take place as early as 2030. To this end, in particular, is developing a heavy booster SLS . In 2040, as stated by representatives of the agency, the Red Planet should already be conquered. By the way, some NASA staff members fly to the moon instead of Mars, they say, and much closer, and the colony is easier and cheaper to organize. But all the others called for the creation of an outpost of mankind on Mars.
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The other day at one of the meetings held at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, one of the leaders of NASA admitted that there is no money for landing a man on the Red Planet. Specially or accidentally, but William Gerstenmeyer said that the financial support received by the agency now is not enough. "I can not say when people get to Mars, the reason for this is lack of funding, the budget is increased roughly 2%, we do not have landing systems and take-off for Mars," Gerstenmeyer said, answering the question when people will fly to Red the planet. "At this stage, taking off and landing is a difficult challenge for us."

In other words, NASA is now spending a lot of money on SLS and Orion. The construction of these systems costs in huge amounts that continue to increase, going beyond the budget. That is why the agency has no money to create systems that allow to land on Mars and take off from its surface. Well, without this, it’s not that a colony, but even landing a small number of astronauts for just a few days is impossible.

As mentioned above, NASA strongly promoted the idea of ​​a flight to Mars, rather than a “return to the moon.” Politicians, including several US presidents, have repeatedly asked NASA to reconsider the objectives, but they have always been clear - Mars. And now, representatives of the agency said that maybe the Moon is still worth bearing in mind when talking about the advancement of man in the solar system.



“If we find water on the moon, we will conduct operations to survey the satellite, we have the opportunity to support this program. If we want to think not only about Mars, then we can try, ”a NASA representative said.

As far as one can understand, officials insistently recommended NASA to pay attention to the Moon and temporarily stop thinking about Mars. In principle, the idea is also good, but the problem is that NASA simply may not have a way to create a colony on the moon. The fact is that, at first, the agency’s operations will depend only on SLS, and this launch vehicle will not take off more than once a year. Moreover, the cost of the flight is $ 1 billion. Flight to Mars or the Moon will cost even more, so the agency should think about what to do next.

So, humanity can forget about flights to other planets? No, there is a way out. It is to use the transportation systems of other companies, including SpaceX, the United Launch Alliance and Amazon. These companies are developing their own launch vehicles, the maintenance and operation of which is much cheaper than working with SLS. If everything works out (NASA did not knowingly enter into contracts with these companies), then plans for the development of the Solar System will be realized. And if not Mars, then the Moon will be conquered. On the other hand, Ilon Musk is sent to Mars and only to Mars, and he can insist on flying there, not to the Moon. Well, it only remains to wait.