mars_society If the failure last year of two NASA Mars probes proves anything, it's that Mars exploration will be best-conducted in the hands of human explorers, says
Robert Zubrin, president of the International Mars Society and author of "Entering Space," and "The Case for Mars."Undaunted by the setbacks that seem to have NASA in turmoil, the International Mars Society is pressing forward with its activities to gain support for human exploration of the Red Planet.
| Proposed Missions to Mars |
| The 90-Day Report Plan: The "Report of the 90-day Study on Human Exploration of the Moon and Mars," commonly referred to as the "90-Day Report," began as an initiative from President George Bush in July 1989. |
Mars Direct - Non-stop Flight to the Red Planet: Robert Zubrin's plan differs from the 90-Day Report plan in its simplicity, lower cost and useof available technology. |
NASA: Putting Humans on Mars: The space agencys most current plan to put a human on Mars discards most ideas from the 90-Day Report and resembles the Mars Direct plan with one major difference. |
The societys three goals are to increase public interest in Mars, motivate political support for Mars missions, and conduct scientific and engineering projects that will contribute to Mars exploration efforts. Zubrin envisions the group becoming a sort of "Cousteau Society of Mars" exploration. Founded by diving pioneer Jaques Cousteau, the Cousteau Society has been a leader in undersea science and exploration for three decades.
As for the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, Zubrin suggests that people need to get over it and accept that losses are a necessary cost of high-risk space missions.
"You have to have the will to keep going after these kinds of setbacks. Because people who quit after a setback are people who do not succeed in anything," Zubrin says.
The losses only highlight the inherent weakness of robotic missions when it comes to exploring a distant planet, Zubrin says. "We have sent 15 robotic probes to Mars, 10 have failed. That's 30 times the failure rate of human spacecraft missions."
While acknowledging that the space program needs robotic missions of all kinds, Zubrin emphasizes that only humans can make the instantaneous and complex decisions that are required of a setting where so much is unanticipated. And only humans can conduct the complicated sampling, collecting, and surveying of the Martian surface that is likely to bring about a real leap in our understanding of Mars.
Q and A with Robert Zubrin: Convinced NASA has been slow to begin work on human missions to Mars, The International Mars Society is taking matters into its own hands. Society president Robert Zubrin spoke with SPACE.com about its plans:
Robotic probes have their place in Mars exploration, Zubrin said, but he believes that human missions will be much more reliable and effective when it comes to exploring the surface of Mars, even though such missions would be momentously more expensive than robotic missions.
The 8,000 member-strong Mars Society is progressing well toward all three of its goals, Zubrin reported.
Last summer's aggressive
letter-writing campaign to members of congress "contributed to the reversal of the $1.4 billion cut in NASA's budget," he said.Meanwhile, members are spreading the "Mars-or-bust" message through the public. The highest-profile public-outreach efforts by a member are movie director James Cameron's upcoming
film and TV projects about the first human missions to Mars.And the most ambitious of the societys near-term goals the effort to establish a simulated Mars research station in the Canadian Arctic is well-funded and proceeding ahead of schedule.
With $400,000 the society raised for the purpose, it is building an experimental
Mars habitation module that will house six "astronauts," and be deployed at the Mars Arctic Research Station on the rocky, crater-pocked Devon Island the Canadian far-north this summer. Construction of the cylindrical module should be completed later this spring, and plans call for it to be shipped to Devon Island in the early summer where it should be installed and ready for operation by late July.The Arctic location was selected for its uncanny similarity to some areas of the Martian landscape. After the base is installed, it will serve as a test range for conducting human Mars-exploration missions.
This computer-generated illustration shows the Mars Habitation Module that the Mars Society will use to test the operation of a human mission to Mars.
Six subjects will live in the module and conduct real field experiments, such as collecting geologic samples taking weather data, and mapping the terrain. The team will be able to test communications methods, measure how much water a crew would use during such a mission, and try different techniques for keeping a crew healthy and mentally stable while working in close quarters during months of isolation from civilization.
"At this point we have the money we need to build it and operate it for two years," Zubrin said, adding that additional money will contribute to both expanding and extending the operation. Most recently, the Mars Society sold the name of the station to software distributor Flashline.com for $175,000. The facility, which is scheduled for completion later this spring, will now be called The Mars Society/ Flashline Arctic Research Station.
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