![]() ![]() Figuring out what to do once humans arrive is much harder. Getting there is only the first challenge. If humanity is to become a truly multi-planet species, we must develop both the will and the means to go and to stay put. While the thrill of exploration yielded “flags and footprints” on the Moon, it takes more than a few small steps to turn a frontier into a colony. Enthusiast organizations from the Mars Society to Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation all promise that with a little imagination-and money-humans will reach Mars within the next few decades. In 2015, the nonprofit Interplanetary Society successfully launched a citizen-funded propulsion system that uses solar energy as a kind of cosmic sail. Musk and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos have both declared Mars a target for their burgeoning aerospace businesses. Concept art for the OSIRIS-REx Capsule returning to Earth ( right). The 2015 mission logo for the OSIRIS-REx mission ( left). Tech billionaires, aging Apollo astronauts, and nonprofit space enthusiast foundations have lately emerged as practical power players. However, with the rise of a thriving private space industry, presidents and legislators no longer hold exclusive authority over extraterrestrial planning. Bush’s promise to return to the Moon and move on to Mars-and like his predecessor, he did not offer concrete plans for doing so. Following legislative wrangling over the proposed Asteroid Return Mission during the Obama administration, Donald Trump resuscitated George W. federal plans for planetary exploration have waxed and waned since the days of NASA’s Project Apollo, during which American men traveled to the moon and back nine times from 1963-1972. A panoramic image of the Mars Pathfinder mission taken from its landing site in 1997 ( bottom). Cernan on the moon in 1972 ( left). Mars in 2003, when it was only 34,647,420 miles from Earth-the closest the two planets have been in 60,000 years ( right). Even before the Moon became the established finish line of the Cold War Space Race, leaders of the American and Soviet space programs envisioned Mars as humankind’s first stop in exploring the cosmos.Īstronaut Eugene A. That hasn’t stopped dreamers and the practical-minded alike from contemplating what our next steps into the mythical final frontier should be.Īs our closest neighbor and host to a bevy of robotic spacecraft that have gone before, Mars is a popular destination among those who yearn to make new footprints on an untrammeled world. Human explorers, however, haven’t ventured beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972. In the time since astronaut Eugene Cernan’s final steps on the Moon, we’ve sent uncrewed spacecraft near and far-to planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets, even to the very edges of the solar system. Nearly half a century has passed since human feet last touched the surface of another celestial body. Concept art for the Mars Excursion Module in a 1964 NASA proposal ( right). His focus on innovation reflects a current surge in enthusiasm for triumphant technological solutions to local- and global-scale problems and a longstanding disdain for the mundane and messy.Įlon Musk unveiled the Dragon V2, a spacecraft designed to carry people into Earth’s orbit and developed through a SpaceX and NASA partnership, in 2014 ( left). However, in addressing questions from the audience, Musk evaded practical questions such as who ought to make the dangerous first trips and how he expected to handle the problem of human waste. His glimmering visions of a terraformed planet, clean, orderly Martian settlements, and low estimated ticket price stoked his audience’s breathless desire to venture into the cosmos. This was not the first time the technology entrepreneur had made such bold pronouncements in front of the IAC crowd.Ī year earlier, at the 67 th IAC meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, Musk had revealed that he had built his vast business empire primarily in order to make colonization of other planets possible, and presented a compelling plan for how to get to Mars. In front of the assembled international audience of space enthusiasts and industry leaders, Musk boldly announced that SpaceX would reach the red planet by 2022.Ĭoncept art for a SpaceX spacecraft on Mars. His proposed first stop: Mars-sooner and cheaper than might be expected. Musk spoke about his company's plans for interplanetary travel and his belief in humanity's future as a multi-planet species. On September 29, 2017, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the stage at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. ![]()
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