Entering the Martian atmosphere and ask astronauts gently on the floor is a technological puzzle, experts from NASA, for whom this phase of flight is the One of the biggest challenges of a manned mission to the red planet. Monday, the head of NASA, Charles Bolden, stated that the United States was determined, despite budgetary constraints, to send astronauts to Mars within twenty years, mobilizing all their resources for space exploration this sole purpose.
“The amarsissage Curiosity in August (the robot one tonne, the heavier he landed on Mars, Ed) was an amazing feat,” commented Tuesday Robert Braun, a professor of space technology to the Georgia Institute of Technology, at a conference in Washington dedicated to the conquest of the red planet. “But this is a very small step compared to what we have to do for a day walking on Mars,” he added.
complex system
“Curiosity is about the size of a small 4×4, and for a manned mission will require a lander able to ask the equivalent volume of a two-storey house of a mass of 40 tons, “said former NASA engineer. For such a mission, to bring the system among other survival a habitation module and a device allowing the crew to leave in March to find their spaceship remained in orbit.
“The technologies that we will use to put such a burden on Mars will probably be very different systems for robots, which are much smaller,” said the engineer. With the exception of Curiosity, the six U.S. devices laid successfully on the Martian soil since 1974 were light enough to slow their descent with a parachute and soften the ground contact with balloons.
Curiosity, too heavy for this type of amarsissage, required a complex system of crane with retros preceded by a supersonic parachute deployment. None of this does not apply to expenses envisaged for a manned mission, said Robert Braun. The Martian atmosphere is much less dense than Earth’s atmospheric pressure at an altitude of 40 km which is equivalent to that of Mars at 10 000 meters, which leaves little time to stop the supersonic speed of a vessel , he said.
New technologies retros “
“We can not use a parachute, which should be huge and not effective at this altitude and at that speed,” continued the expert. “It is therefore necessary to develop new technologies retros from five times the speed of sound at subsonic speed, while preparing to land, all in a very short time,” he said. “This is a challenge we have ever faced, and we do not have a specific answer,” admitted the engineer.
For Adam Stelzner, one of the inventors of the space system crane has put Curiosity, “it is not to invent new technologies, but to show a little more creative in using what exists, as we have done with Curiosity “. “In 2003 (eight years before the launch of the robot, Ed), we did not know how to land on Mars,” was he recalled, saying that “space crane” could “possibly work for a manned mission . “
retropropulsion
“We need a system retropropulsion running two or three times the speed of sound,” said Charles Campbell, aerodynamics expert at NASA. “We know how to build a supersonic machine but not pull-back,” he added, saying that “the rocket motor and control LG present the greatest difficulties.” According to him, “it will show before the operation of this system with a robotic mission.”
The engineer also noted that the scenarios are planning to carry crew and cargo separately on Mars. It will take a launch system capable of carrying Earth 130 tonnes for a manned mission to Mars can bring all that is necessary. “When we consider a mission to Mars with humans, things take a considerable extent”, the landing system also adding significantly to costs, said the expert, arguing that such a mission will require the cooperation is international.
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