Charles Bolden, NASA administrator and former astronaut, recently told CNBC’s On the Money that a mission to Mars may be a reality in the next 20 years. “We think we’re on the right trajectory to get humans to Mars in the 2030s.” He said he is confident that the space agency’s “Journey to Mars” goal can be accomplished, and says they have been sending “precursor missions to Mars for almost 50 years now.” Bolden said we are closer than ever before in the eventual journey to the Red Planet.
It may be the modern-day equivalent to a trip to the moon, but with a much greater significance. According to Bolden, reaching Mars is “critically important” in achieving a better understanding of Earth, since Mars is similar to our own planet in many ways. Although a cold desert half the diameter of Earth, Mars has seasons, weather, canyons and volcanoes, and nearly the same amount of dry land as our planet, although the water is long gone.
The question is where the Martian atmosphere went, and the answer could help us deal with climate change on Earth. Scientists believe that at some point the Red Planet must have had a thicker, denser atmosphere. Understanding what happened to it could help deal with the increasing amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere, which is fueling dangerous climate change.
Unmanned satellites and rovers, along with meteorites from Mars, have helped us understand how an entire planet’s atmosphere can change due the transformation of CO2 into carbonate materials, essentially rocks. These carbonate materials absorb water, resulting in the planet losing both its atmosphere and its water. Studying the chemical evolution of that planet could help teach us about the same ongoing process on Earth.
According to Bolden, nuclear thermal propulsion is the best bet for getting humans to Mars. A great deal of help in building the systems and spaceships is coming from commercial civilian companies such as Boeing and SpaceX, who have already helped NASA send astronauts to the International Space Station. Those partnerships will continue, with the program calling for a core rocket to be built by Boeing.
Surprisingly enough, there is little communication between Earth climate change scientists and their counterparts who study Mars. Combining the knowledge pool of those two groups could go a long ways toward controlling Earth’s increasing climate problems, to which Mars may hold the secret.