The NASA and other space agencies have been talking about sending a manned mission to Mars for quite a while, but now it seems they've actually taken a big step towards it. Last night I read that researchers have managed to find a way to create a force field which would enable the spaceship to withstand the solar storms in space, which used to be one of the biggest obstacles of manned space travel– how to protect the astronauts from radiation. The risk of them being exposed to a lot of it on the way to the moon is far slimmer simply because the moon is so much closer. Our planet is protected by the magnetosphere, and scientists think they have now found out how to recreate it on a small enough scale to be feasible for a space ship.
This is exciting news. It will still be years before they actually do it and if a lot of things go wrong they might not even do it in our lifetime, but we’re getting there. I’m very interested in all things space but lately things have been a bit boring – nothing really interesting is happening anymore. Space shuttles travelling to the ISS are still exciting and I do follow them, but they’ve turned into a bit of an everyday-event. I’m not even sure what they’re actually doing up there these days. Unmanned missions to Mars are a little more exciting – I still remember a couple of years ago when they published all those colour photographs in the papers. I still have the articles at home somewhere. But they too get boring. For one, they take ages. If they launched a mission now, you’d only hear from it again in 2010, and even then there’s quite a big chance of the thing just crashing or refusing to do what it’s supposed to do. Remember Beagle 2?
And then, sometimes the mission itself is boring. Pictures are nice, it was quite interesting when they found evidence suggesting the presence of water, but most of the rest is really only of interest to scientists. Now manned missions are completely different. I’m all for them putting another man on the moon, even though it probably wouldn’t serve much of a purpose right now – it’s exciting and I wasn’t round 40 years ago so it’s only fair they repeat that performance for me now.
But sending people to Mars… well! That’d really be something. And I really admire whoever is going to go on that mission. More than three years completely on your own in this tiny spacecraft, with the same handful of people every single day, and so far away from not just other humans but earth itself it boggles the mind… you have to be extraordinarily strong to cope with that.
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5 comments:
You're such a geek :o I never follow this stuff. Fascinating sure, but I never follow it... least of all who's going to the ISS when. 'Magnetosphere'? :s that's new :s - I know Atmo, Strato, Topo and a couple others that I can't recall.
Why do little kids always want to be astronauts? Sounds like an unnatural career option to me, really. Ugh - I'd never want to be one. Too much separation anxiety and fear of my spacecraft ex/imploding
And, finally - "...completely on your own in this tiny spacecraft, with the same handful of people every single day..." ur grammer sux :D
Do some research then, it's a nice thing that's keeping you alive. The least you can do to say thank you is look it up.
I never wanted to be a firefighter/clown/vet/stuff, only an astronaut :D
And I was thinking about that last bit too while I was still writing it, but then I thought nobody's going to notice anyway, let alone point it out to me :-/
India sent an unmanned mission to the moon couple of weeks back, didja know? everyone's very excited about it. they're talking of sending a manned one next.
I never thought of it in those terms - being in the same area with the same people for that long - but yeah, you're right... you have to be incredibly strong to be ablke to do that.
I wanna go home :(
Well shoot I used my other id.
Oh... business trip again? :-/ I thought that'd be once every couple of months
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