Elon Musk and NASA May Finally Have the Same Goal: Putting Humans on Mars – News18

Elon Musk wants humans to colonize the moon. He may not be the only one anymore. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX boss has mentioned putting humans on the red planet multiple times, and even put a timeline to it: 2026. While NASA has had a later date, he may finally have someone backing him up. NASA recently announced its partnership with SpaceX to return to the moon by 2024. Following this announcement, Scott Hubbard, who formerly led the agencys Mars program, was hopeful there would be some news about future crewed trips to the Red Planet. And it happened - NASAs press release did mention Mars.

Elon Musk has often said he wanted to get people to Mars as soon as possible. He expected to have 1 million people on Mars by 2050, he said in 2020.

Musk in February 2021 for the first time ever mentioned a timeline to get humans on the red planet. Five and a half years," Musk said.

While thats not a hard deadline. Musk listed a number of caveats theres a raft of technological advances that must be made in the intervening year. The important thing is that we establish Mars as a self-sustaining civilization," he said.

The strange thing is the deadline may be a little ambitious, as even USAs leading space agency, NASA, had a much more different date, one which is seven years after Musks time but the first humans arent due to arrive on a NASA funded rocket until at least 2033. That will be part of the Artemis - to the Moon and Mars - mission that will first see a sustainable presence established on the lunar surface.

Musk also answered other questions about Mars. Over time you can make Mars Earth like by terraforming the planet by warming it up, said Musk.

When asked if he would allow his children to go to Mars on a future rocket trip he said if were talking about the third or fourth set of landings on Mars Id be ok with that, adding that so far none of them are jumping to go to Mars.

But humans surviving the journey to Mars may be a little ambitious - A study found that energy-producing structures in cells might be the reason astronauts face health risk while in space.

Over the years astronauts have reported loss of bone and muscle, while some have developed immune disorders or heart and liver issues - all which have been may be triggered by the same thing.

Frank Borman was probably the first person to barf in space. Borman was part of NASAs Apollo 8 mission, which lifted off a launch pad in Florida on December 21, 1968. Over the next six days, the mission made history as it circled the moon and returned home. But Borman, who led the mission, became queasy near the beginning. I threw up a couple of times, he recalled in an interview in 1999.

Space sickness isnt the only side effect to accompany the thrill of leaving Earth. A 2015 NASA report identified 30 factors that could make astronauts sick and unable to do their jobs. And there may be more, it said. Until people visit Mars it will be difficult to fully predict what could go wrong.

Some of the known risks arent simple or minor: Along with space sickness, there is radiation high-energy subatomic particles that will pass through an astronauts skin, damaging cells inside and out. Space travelers bones and muscles also can weaken as those body parts no longer have to constantly work against gravity. Blood and other fluids from the lower parts of the body can accumulate in upper body parts, including around the brain. One side effect: Astronauts may suffer hearing loss.

The new study by systems biologist, Afshin Beheshti, which was conducted by Dataf from NASAs GeneLab, looked at proteins and RNAs in each sample. The team also examined blood and urine from 59 astronauts. Spaceflight seemed to have caused many biochemical changes in them. One symptom: Space travelers had more chemicals known to trigger inflammation. The researchers also found signs of oxidative stress, a type of cell damage. That damage can be due to poorly functioning mitochondria.

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Elon Musk and NASA May Finally Have the Same Goal: Putting Humans on Mars - News18