NASA Unveils Plans For Sending Humans To Mars While Scientists Work On The Problem Of Radiation

NASA has received an authority from the government to get humans to Mars by 2030. With this urgency, NASA prepares its plans unveiling them now on how it will get humans to Mars.

NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier said that they produced the framework that people could view the real plan executed. On the other hand, he said that "it's not so defined that it is some piece changes, the whole plan gets thrown away and they start all over again."

The first stage of the space agency's plan is developing a deep space gateway (DSG), which is a small space station orbiting the Moon. This will be assembled during the three Space Launch System (SLS) flights and to be finished by 2025.

The DSG will have four crew and will have a habitation module, airlock for spacewalks and propulsion module. This will be the spaceport or launching pad for lunar landing missions.

The second phase of NASA's plan involves the deep space transport (DST) spacecraft, which could support a crew of four for about 1,000 days at a time. The supply and refurbishing will be made at the DSG anytime there are space missions. The DST, which weigh about 41 metric tons, will be launched into lunar orbit in 2017 through a single SLS mission. NASA is expecting the DST to have three trips to Mars then back to Earth, according to Futurism.

Meanwhile, one of the obstacles that space travelers will encounter in space is the radiation. Currently, the scientists are developing ways on how to protect the astronauts and space travelers from the radiation. This ultraviolet radiation including the cosmic and gamma rays from the Sun and space could lead to cancer and even to death.

The good news is the researchers are creating methods for protection. One of these is the AstroRad Radiation Shield, which is invented by StemRad, an Israeli company. This is a sort of a vest that astronauts could wear. It could shield vital human tissue such as reproductive organs, lungs and stem cells from radiation. This vest could have its first test in space by 2018, according to Learning English.