NASHIK :
On the fourth day of World Space Week organised by the Nashik India Chapter of the National Space Society (USA); a lecture on Human leap to Mars, was conducted.
The speaker for the subject was senior American scientist Dr Pascal Lee, Senior Planetary Scientist NASA, President-Mars Institute, Director-NASA Hotton-Mars Project.
In his presentation, Dr Lee, asserted that NASA experts had predicted that a team of astronauts could set foot on Mars by 2035 if plans to capture an asteroid in 2025, which could be the base for the Mars mission, were successful.
No matter how attractive the idea of humans going to Mars is, first will have to go to the moon and prove ability to stay there before going to Mars. Mars is not another planet like Earth. A little better than the moon. But less than 50 percent of solar energy is available on Mars.
He explained that the Greenhouses will not be practical in terms of colonization on Mars. There will be a need for nuclear power stations and space based solar energy.
Before going to any planet, all the experiments are done on the earth itself by standing on the principle of simulation with the atmosphere of that planet. It takes less time, money, equipment and manpower to do any experiment on Earth than in space. Studies are completed faster and at lower cost by analog method.
“A base needs to be set up for the purpose of providing commercial services in Lower Orbit before moving to other planets. This means that continuous travel between Earth and other planets can be reduced.
Space transport requires regular transportation and extensive testing and use of human facilities and systems in the lunar atmosphere”, expressed Dr Lee curiously.
He informed, “The Arctic Desert Island, with the same terrain as Mars, is available on Earth before going directly to Mars. All its experiments are underway on this island.
This is not a one-man show, it requires the full support and participation of all other countries in the world to make the NASA-led manpower mission possible.
International cooperation and the support of private industry will be needed to send the first man to Mars, the Red Planet.”
“The stages of this mission will generally be as follows. Go back to the moon first. Be there. Then go to Mars ten years later. Establish a permanent station after twenty years.
Internal solar system, transport system, highway to space, infrastructure must be installed,” presented Dr Lee in his online lecture.
The NASA is working on the Mars-like Arctic Desert Island, the Houghton Crater-Mars project on Devon Island in Canada, and Dr Lee is the project’s director.
In the next few decades, the dream of human habitation on the moon and Mars will surely come true and today’s young generation will witness it. The speakers answered many questions of the audience in a very enlightening way.
