How NASA handles tech
The technology taking NASA to Mars
Whether mankind returns to Mars by 2030 is more of a political than technological question at this point -- the politics may be far from settled, but the technology is subject to significantly less debate.
'We have the technology, we have the capability,' said Christina Richey, a contract program officer at NASA. 'We just have to have the will.'
Getting to Mars has been a cornerstone of the NASA mission since the first fly-by attempt of Mariner 3 almost 50 years ago. That first mission failed, but just three weeks later NASA successfully sent Mariner 4 on an eight-month voyage to Mars.
That was in 1964, the heyday of the space program, when the Moon was in sight and anything seemed possible. Then, NASA consumed 4.6 percent of the federal budget. Today it's less than 0.5 percent, which means the agency must find ways to get more technological bang for its buck.
To date, satellites and rovers have been the only machines to orbit or land on the planet. Five decades on from Mariner and a decade after President George W. Bush proposed returning to the Moon by 2020 as a steppingstone for a mission to Mars, NASA is showcasing some of the gadgets it hopes to use to send astronauts on the first manned interplanetary spaceflight. FCW recently took a behind the scenes look at NASA's 'Human Exploration Day on the Hill: Path to Mars,' and got a glimpse at the latest technology designed to take Americans to Mars and tap into the planet's resources for future use.
(Photo: Colby Hochmuth)
The goal to get humans to Mars by 2030 is massive both in the grandeur of the notion and the physical challenge it presents. Reaching the goal will require a massive industrial undertaking. The Michoud assembly facility in Louisiana, one of the largest in the country, spreads across 43 acres and is the construction site for the program's 321-foot, 5.5 million pound rocket and other mission hardware.
Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 8 1 Name: Mariner Count: 3 2 Name: Moon Count: 2 3 Name: FCW Count: 1 4 Name: Christina Richey Count: 1 5 Name: George W. Bush Count: 1 6 Name: Colby Hochmuth Count: 1 7 Name: Louisiana Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1vQOgyI Title: NASA's futuristic spacesuits made for Mars walkers Description: By Mike Wall, Senior Writer NASA is thinking hard about what the first boots to set foot on Mars will look like. Getting astronauts to the Red Planet is the chief long-term goal of the agency's human spaceflight program, so NASA is developing many technologies to help make that happen.
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