Can We Still Go to Mars? – The Atlantic

Like many workplaces this spring, NASA sent its most of its employees home and hunkered down. While the agency put some projects on hold, it pressed ahead with others. A pair of NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station and back in a SpaceX capsule. The Mars rover Perseverance launched on its months-long journey into deep space. These efforts, years in the making, were nearing their finish lines as the coronavirus spread across the country, and NASA deemed them mission essential.

Read: The Pandemic has grounded humankind

Both launches, especially the historic flight of Doug Hurley and Bob Behnkenwhom NASA affectionately advertised as space dadsfor a moment drew Americans attention from a seemingly ceaseless current of tragedies, including stories of infected Americans dying in ambulances and footage of Black Americans dying at the hands of white police officers. Some people were delighted, grateful for a spot of good news. Others were surprised, even aghast, at the timing. Youre doing this now? Really?

The critique echoed the feelings of many Americans during NASAs most famous era: the race to the moon. In the late 1960s, the Apollo program unfolded against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, civil-rights demonstrations, and political assassinations. Polling from that time shows that the majority of Americans didnt think the Apollo program was worth the cost. The exception was a survey conducted on the day of the moon landing, when the mood around the world was euphoric. Even in that moment, though, the problems of our planet firmly grounded the minds of some AmericansGil Scott-Heron captured this most famously, in his 1970 poem: I think Ill send these doctor bills / Airmail special / To whitey on the moon.

Still, space historians told me, in those halcyon days of human spaceflight, even with all its turmoil, the country functioned on a basic level. In the late 1960s, a different virus known as the Hong Kong flu killed roughly 100,000 Americans, but did not destabilize the country the way COVID-19 has. Throughout the decade, the national economy was thriving, and an American passport meant something. Though the Vietnam War roiled American politics, the active front was in a distant country. The wars toll was heavyan estimated 47,434 Americans died in battle between 1964 and 1975but in six months, COVID-19 deaths in the United States outnumbered American casualties in the past five wars combined.

Even before the pandemic paralyzed the country, the prospect of Americans making it to Mars in the 2030s was far-fetched. In February 2019, a year before the first American died from COVID-19, an independent research group published a report about NASAs Mars dreams. At Congresss request, NASA had asked the group to evaluate whether the agency could launch astronauts to the red planet in 2033, not to land, but to loop around and come back, as the early Apollo missions did. The conclusion was bleak; given NASAs current plans, an orbital mission would be infeasible under all budget scenarios and technology development and testing schedules. The researchers found that astronauts might be able to launch in 2037, without any schedule delays or budget shortfalls, but believed 2039 would be more realistic, which would push a landing to the 2040s. (The institute that conducted the report has not done any analysis on the pandemics potential impact on these ambitious plans.)

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Can We Still Go to Mars? - The Atlantic