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How humanity tried to get to Mars, why traveling to this planet can lead to Parkinson’s disease and how it especially threatens a woman
Fantasts and futurologists of the 2021th century unanimously spoke about the irreversibility of the colonization of Mars. Moreover, the date of the beginning of its development by man was called approximately the same: the first quarter of our century. Writer Arthur C. Clarke, for example, believed that a person would first set foot on the Red Planet as early as 2014, and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov even predicted that by XNUMX almost regular communication of unmanned ships would be established between the planets.
But all these prophecies did not come true. Mars, which humanity has been watching so closely for more than 300 years, has remained impregnable. Moreover, compared to how the space industry developed in the last century, today we seem to be witnessing a regression. This is especially noticeable in the field of manned cosmonautics.
All major missions are focused on the ISS, as well as on the launch of satellites, laying, for example, the infrastructure foundations for the “Internet of Things” or the militarization of space. The last time a human foot set foot on the moon was back in 1972, while Americans celebrate the recent successful docking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with the ISS.
Compared with the chronicle of the triumphs of the 60-70s of the last century, all this looks, to put it mildly, modestly.
But such a slowdown in the development of astronautics in general, and in the implementation of a manned flight to Mars in particular, is more likely to be associated with more complex institutional problems than with the fact that a person simply preferred consumption to conquering space – “drinking beer and watching TV shows”, as once lamented writer Ray Bradbury.
And it’s not even about funding (although any project associated with a flight to Mars requires astronomical costs) or the absence of a pronounced ideological component, which was the case during the Cold War era. Over the past decades, our knowledge of Mars has expanded so much that now we look at such missions much more realistically, without that dizzying enthusiasm with which the futurologists of the XNUMXth century looked into the future. In this sense, the very history of the project to fly to Mars is extremely instructive.
From Tsiolkovsky to fascination with space
In scientific discourse, the problem of human interplanetary flights was first raised in the works of the scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, mathematician Yakov Perelman and engineer Vladimir Ryumin at the very beginning of the last century. The very first experiments in this area belong to the Soviet inventor Friedrich Zander, who, based on the theoretical calculations of his predecessors, prepared the first project for a manned flight to another planet.
According to Zander’s calculations, a trip of two or three astronauts to Mars would require a ship weighing 400 tons, the design of which should have been a combination of an airplane and a rocket – in case the flight had to be carried out in an atmosphere of a different density.
To serve astronauts and ships, the scientist proposed using circumplanetary orbital stations. By the way, Zander for the first time was able to experimentally test the possibility of using greenhouses, which he planned to place on board the ship to grow food for astronauts.
Subsequently, on the basis of these studies, the “Jet Propulsion Study Group” (GIRD) was organized, which in 1933 became part of the Jet Research Institute (RNII), whose chief engineer was the legendary Sergei Korolev. In the autumn of the same year, the first launch of the Soviet GIRD-X rocket took place, which, having taken off vertically to a height of about 80 meters, crashed. Until the start of World War II, they continued to improve it, running it in ground and flight tests.
At the same time, in the West, already in 1952, the German-American designer Wernher von Braun published his project for a manned flight to Mars. In the book Das Marsprojekt, he proposed sending ten interplanetary ships to the Red Planet – seven with people (ten people each) and three with cargo. Von Braun also designed an airplane-like lander. It was assumed that the astronauts would be able to land on the surface of Mars as on an airplane, after which they would dismantle the wings so that the module would again take on the appearance of a rocket.
Of course, the first projects of a manned human flight to another planet were not feasible in principle. For example, today we know that due to the low temperature (an average of minus 62 degrees Celsius) and extremely rarefied atmosphere (about 100 times less dense than on Earth), it is impossible to land on Mars using the wings of an airplane.
These projects rather determined the general vector of development, set new tasks for engineers and turned the space industry into perhaps the most iconic phenomenon in the entire civilized world.
It was at the peak of this general fascination with space, by the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s, that the USSR and the USA finally managed to construct the first real vehicles that paved the first paths to Mars.
14 second introduction
The first attempts to land an automatic device on the planet were made by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. However, they all ended in failure. “Mars 1960A” and “Mars 1960B” did not reach the planet due to accidents of the Molniya launch vehicle. A little more successful was the launch of the Mars-1 station, which, despite the Caribbean crisis, still managed to take off from Baikonur and get close to the planet at a distance of 200 thousand km, after which communication with the device was lost.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union managed only a 14-second stay on Mars: in 1971, the Mars-3 apparatus managed to successfully land on the planet, but a severe dust storm interrupted communication with the rover. The Americans did much more.
In 1965, the Mariner-4 spacecraft flew up to the planet at a minimum distance to its center – 13 km – and managed to take 200 images with a resolution of about one km. Then, already in 21, the first artificial satellite of the planet “Mariner-1971” was launched, which delivered thousands of new and much more detailed images to Earth.
For example, it turned out that Mars is dotted with volcanic and tectonic geological formations, that it has dried up channels of water flows. From that moment, large-scale studies of the atmosphere and ionosphere of the planet, as well as its environment, began.
Finally, in 1975, two automatic stations, Viking 1 and Viking 2, successfully landed on the planet. More than 50 thousand images were sent to Earth, which made it possible to compile the first cartographic sketch of the planet. After that, there were no successful Martian expeditions for more than 20 years. Only in 1996, the Mars Global Surveyor entered orbit, which managed to make images of Mars that are unique in their clarity.
Today, a new research apparatus “Perseverance” (Perseverance) is moving towards the planet. If successful, the rover in 2029 will transfer the first samples of Martian soil to the orbiter, which will be delivered to Earth.
This is especially important, because due to the capacities of ground-based laboratories, scientists will be able to determine the biological origin of the Martian soil, and in the future, at least partially reconstruct the history of life on this planet.
In general, over 60 years of active exploration of Mars, the total number of missions to this planet has reached 45. Of these, only 19 were successful. And these are missions for automatic vehicles only. We have not even talked about manned flight yet.
Without gravity and communication, but with mold and radiation
The fact is that during the entire period of active study of the Red Planet, mankind has learned a lot not only about what Mars itself is like – for example, what is the average temperature on the surface of the planet, what is its climate, gravitational and magnetic fields, atmosphere, but and the difficulties of traveling and landing on Mars.
As a result, due to the collected information, it was possible to determine the main problems of the piloted project, without which the development of the planet by man is impossible or will be associated with huge risks. All of them are somehow included in one global problem – the distance between Earth and Mars, which is more than 55 million km. For comparison, a little more than 384 thousand km lie between the Earth and the Moon.
Such a distance requires very special solutions for a successful flight – from the design of the rocket, ending with the preliminary medical and psychological preparation of the astronauts and the coordination of the entire mission.
“The main technical obstacle today is purely formal. So far, neither the United States, nor China, nor the Russian Federation have a powerful enough rocket to send even one person to Mars on it. Those rockets that are sent to the planet by automatic stations are capable of throwing about 5 tons there. Moreover, only one ton flies to the very surface of the planet. In comparison, flights to the moon in the 1970s required a 50-ton spacecraft. And this, attention, for a six-day journey – there and back. Whereas the journey to Mars will take many months. That is, all the available rockets are too weak so far,” Vladimir Surdin, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Senior Researcher at the State Astronomical Institute. P.K. Sternberg Moscow State University.
According to the astronomer, one of the possible solutions to this problem is a fast flight: when the rocket will be equipped not with a chemical jet engine, but with a nuclear one. But while the very possibility of using such an engine is being actively explored: it is very dirty and dangerous, and if an accident occurs with a rocket at the start, which happens in 2-3% of launches, the disaster will be much worse than in Chernobyl.
But even if it is possible to design a sufficiently powerful engine, obstacles of a completely different order will begin. The approximate travel time to Mars will be about 9 months. The total duration of the trip there and back will be approximately 500 days. That is, the astronauts will have to spend almost a year and a half indoors in conditions of almost complete absence of gravity, with an extremely primitive and intermittent connection with the Earth, and then also in terrifying Martian conditions – at very low temperatures and pressure.
Especially a lot of problems – in the absence of gravity. “In zero gravity, blood moves from the veins of the lower extremities to the upper body, which leads to overflow of blood in the head, swelling of tissues in the neck and head, and other reactions,” write, for example, the authors of the book Manned Expedition to Mars.
In other words, if under the conditions of the Earth the body strives to deliver blood and other fluids, overcoming ordinary gravity, then in space these processes continue, despite the changed conditions, which will provoke physiological problems. In addition, due to the lack of the usual load, a person will lose muscle mass and bone thickness.
In addition to the impact of weightlessness, during a trip to Mars, an astronaut can receive an excessive dose of radiation, which is extremely dangerous for the functioning of the body.
“If we take the radiation standard for a person who works at nuclear enterprises or uranium mines, then the exposure level is 1 thousand millisieverts. It is believed that such a dose that does not threaten a person’s life can be obtained by working at a similar enterprise for 50 years. So, the same astronaut who works on the ISS receives about 220 millisieverts a year, that is, he can stay on it safely, conditionally, for four years. But the fact is that while on the ISS, a person is protected by the Earth’s geomagnetic field, which effectively deflects charged particles, while the flight to Mars will take place outside this field,” Vyacheslav Shurshakov, Head of the Department of Radiation Safety of Manned Space Flights, IBMP .
That is, once in outer space, the astronauts throughout the entire journey will be under constant ionizing radiation, which in total will be equal to the permitted dose for the entire career – 1 thousand millisieverts. Not to mention that during the flight, the so-called solar proton event can occur – a dangerous manifestation of solar activity, which can emit hundreds of times more radiation than in undisturbed conditions.
The dose of radiation received during the flight can lead to a significant reduction in the duration of human life, an increase in the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and oncological diseases, and impaired short-term memory. By the way, therefore, it is believed that a woman should not participate in the mission at all yet, because statistically a woman’s life expectancy is longer than that of a man, which means there are more risks of facing delayed diseases in old age.
According to Vyacheslav Shurshakov, today several ways are being discussed at once to minimize the harm of ionizing radiation to astronauts, for example, there is an idea to create something similar to the magnetic field around the spacecraft that surrounds the Earth and protects people on the ISS. It is also possible to introduce astronauts into a lethargic sleep, to make changes at the gene level, making the body more resistant to radiation. There are options for neurosurgical intervention that pre-stops possible manifestations of Parkinson’s disease. Such operations are already being carried out in Japan today.
But that’s not all. In addition to psychological problems, there are difficulties with hygiene: it is not clear how to wash clothes and bathe. The absence of sunlight and a closed humid atmosphere is an ideal environment for the formation of fungi and mold, which are dangerous because they can “eat” the plastic insulation on board the ship and provoke accidents.
Added to this are diseases typical of any space flight. The authors of the book Manned Expedition to Mars give such an impressive list: “Space motion sickness, sinus congestion, constipation, headache, skin irritation and dryness, abscesses, minor abrasions and bruises, inflammation of the cornea or its abrasions, infection of the upper respiratory tract , insomnia, otitis. Therefore, an autonomous medical center will need to be created on board the ship. Telemedicine technologies may also be significant here.
Of course, all these problems can be solved in the future. Much is already being worked on today. For example, engineers are thinking of more advanced spacesuits that will help a person survive in the Martian climate, improving the communication system to improve the coordination of the entire project, designing a device for a safe landing on the planet. The possibility of growing vegetables on the planet is also being considered in order to provide the entire team with food. Possible psychological problems of a long flight are being studied.
But although humanity over the past years has done a lot to bring the colonization of Mars closer, so far, even in the medium term, one should not count on the fact that a person will set foot on this planet.
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