German ex-astronaut Ulrich Walter expects that humans will land on Mars by the end of the 2030s. The next optimal constellation with the fastest flight path would be 2033, but according to the American space agency NASA, no preparations can be made by then.
This optimal constellation only occurs once every fifteen years, the Munich professor of space technology told the German news agency dpa. The next good chance is 2048. Walter, who flew into space on the American space shuttle ‘Columbia’ in 1993, is convinced that NASA does not want to wait that long.
“If you want to fly between them, in theory you can do that every two years. So maybe they will fly in late 2035 or 2037/38 or early 2040,” Walter said. “But that means they need more fuel and a correspondingly bigger rocket.”
The tanks could be left on the Red Planet – as the first building blocks for habitats in which people will live, in the longer term in homes covered with regolith – crumbled rock – to protect against cosmic rays.
“The only way to Mars is through the moon”
But first this must be achieved on the moon. “The only way to Mars is through the moon, but not spatially.” The plans of the major space-faring countries – in addition to the US and especially China – are not about flying to the moon again “to show that we can manage to land there. But: we have enough technology under control to survive a two-and-a-half-year mission to Mars.’
Because: “If something goes wrong, you have to be able to save yourself. You must be able to repair things yourself, you must be able to provide your own medical care. All this has to work. The only way to prove you can do this is on the moon. Because you can fly to the moon in three days and back in three days,” Walter told dpa.
NASA wants to land on the moon again in 2027
The first manned moon landing by NASA as part of the ‘Artemis’ program is currently expected for 2027, Walter said. “And then they need at least eight years to build up habitats and show that they have everything under control.” China has announced its intention to put a man on the moon by 2030 and then build a station.
Russia is left out; it has neither the knowledge nor the money, says Walter. The European Space Agency (ESA) is also not in the race for the first manned landing on the moon since ‘Apollo 17’. ‘The Europeans play no role at all.’ ESA is contributing to NASA’s ‘Artemis’ program in the hope of sending its own astronauts.
Source: Krone
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