Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX plans to send humans to Mars by 2028. But there's still one problem before it can go ahead.
With Donald Trump back in the White House and Elon Musk’s relentless push for Mars exploration, the drive to plant an American flag on the Red Planet has never been stronger.
NASA is aiming for 2030s timeline, following a planned crewed lunar landing in 2027, which pushes their timeline beyond Musk’s 2028 target.
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However, with the world's richest man having a say in government policy and NASA administrator Jared Isaacman’s strong connections to SpaceX, these efforts could align sooner than expected.
The Tesla owner openly called the Moon a 'distraction' on X, arguing that space agencies should skip the middle step and focus directly on Mars.
But while the ambition is there, there’s still one massive problem.
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For the mission to be a success, humans need to survive long enough to actually make it there and back.
“You can send people to Mars with a whole bunch of unknowns, and that’s all risk to the mission being successful, the crew surviving,” said Nujoud Merancy, Deputy Associate NASA Administrator.
Getting to Mars isn’t like a trip to the Moon. Since our lunar neighbour is only a few hundred thousand miles away, Apollo astronauts took three days to get there.
Whereas, Mars is at least 34.8 million miles from Earth, meaning a round trip would take around three years, according to the US space agency.
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That means three years of isolation and harsh space conditions. Not to mention the threat of deadly radiation that has the potential to kill or sicken them both in transit and on Mars’ surface.
And to make matters worse, scientists can't develop a solution until they fully understand the risks they’re facing.
As Steven H. Platts, the chief scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program put it: “We won’t really know about the radiation environment on Mars until we’re on Mars."
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Figuring out how to protect them inside the spacecraft is a puzzle scientists are just starting to sort out.
On the journey, astronauts will be exposed to two types of radiation: solar radiation, which is relatively easier to shield against, and galactic cosmic rays, which are far more difficult to block.
NASA has been working on protective measures, but since cosmic rays travel at nearly the speed of light, they can easily penetrate standard spacecraft materials. Platts noted that scientists are studying radiation treatment patients, specifically looking at how radiation affects healthy cells. Preparation is key for a space mission this vast.