Our fascination with the Red Planet is
understandable. Proving that humans can survive
(and thrive) as an interplanetary species would
completely change our society. But the challenges
facing NASA—or any other outfit willing to make the
long trek—are monumental.

These are the biggest hurdles that stand between
us and Mars, and how the moon might be the
perfect place to help prepare us for the Red planet


CHALLENGE 1: THE ORBIT
You can’t just point and shoot. Do that and your
spacecraft will miss Mars. So, rocket scientists use
a maneuver called a Hohmann transfer orbit to
send a vehicle from a small circular orbit (say,
Earth’s) to a larger one (Mars’s). The transfer orbit
must be timed precisely so that when the
spacecraft leaves Earth it arrives at destination
orbit at the same time Mars reaches the same
position. Earth and Mars only come into the right
orbital alignment for a Hohmann transfer once
every 26 months to allow a survivable six-month
journey with the use of available propulsion
techniques.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: It would be
relatively easy for a Mars-bound vehicle to “stop
by” Gateway at its very high orbit at a relatively low
cost in terms of propellant and velocity change.


CHALLENGE 2: THE LONG AWAY MISSION
We’ll have to stay a while. Astronauts will need to
remain on Mars or orbiting it for months at a time.
A single Mars mission, from start to finish, would
likely take more than two years. That’s a long while
to be away from our home planet, breathing
recycled air in the cramped quarters of a laboratory
environment. And with a 40-minute lag between
sending messages to Earth and receiving responses
back, astronauts will need to make autonomous
decisions. All of this will contribute to extreme
feelings of alienation.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: NASA hopes
to learn how astronauts respond psychologically to
living for extended periods on the moon. Scientists
will also monitor the effects of microgravity and
space radiation on astronauts’ bodies to develop
solutions for longer Mars missions.


CHALLENGE 3: SENDING SUPPLIES
Huge rockets will be needed to send big payloads.
A Mars lander and the trans-Martian cruise vehicle
will likely be built from payloads delivered into orbit
by NASA’s mammoth Space Launch System (SLS)
rocket and Orion spacecraft over several missions.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: NASA will
develop that deep-space capability by using the
SLS and Orion vehicles to build the Gateway lunar
orbiting platform and moon-based habitats.


CHALLENGE 4: SENDING MORE SUPPLIES
Resupply isn’t an easy option. While astronauts at
the International Space Station can receive fresh
supplies within a few hours of a launch from Earth,
Mars explorers might have to wait two years. That
means enough food and fuel must be brought from
home or made on Mars.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: Our lunar
base might be the proving ground for technologies
that’ll produce propellant fuel from water ice mined
beneath the surface of the moon, if, of course, the
same technology can be adapted for Mars.


CHALLENGE 5: A BETTER SPACE STATION
We’ll need a more versatile space station. As NASA
and its army of aerospace contractors complete
work on SLS, a new, space-station-sized cruiser,
known as Deep-Space Transport (DST) will have to
be developed to shuttle crews between Earth and
Mars.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: Key systems
for DST, such as radiation shielding and closed-
loop life-support, will be flight proven on Gateway.


CHALLENGE 6: NEXT-GEN LANDER
There will be expected and unforeseen problems.
The DST will only go to the orbit of Mars, which
means that a large lander, capable of making soft
touchdown on the Red Planet, would have to be
built in space. NASA’s key contractor, Lockheed
Martin, proposed a giant space plane, which would
use the SLS rocket for launch from Earth. Then
there is the newly emerged juggernaut of space
business, SpaceX, which hopes to build the Big
Falcon Rocket, BFR, to haul into Earth’s orbit a 150-
ton trans-Martian cruiser with 40 crew cabins.
To escape the Earth’s gravity, the huge ship would
need four refueling tankers and another refueling on
Mars using a prebuilt propellant production plant.
How Going Back to the Moon Helps: NASA
believes new moon missions will accelerate a
mission to Mars by speeding up the development
of technologies needed to get there. But even
before NASA diverted from Mars to the moon, an
independent study estimated that the first
realistically achievable window for a crewed Mars
mission would open in 2037.

If u even believe the white man has been to moon, I mean moon then believe that I just came back from Jupiter. These people have never ever been to the moon not to talk of Mars. My gosh

See we are on the earth not in the earth. We are already in space so which space do this guys keep telling us they go to?

Now if the white man has really been to the moon with all the advancement in technology and simulators they have , my brother they would have put KFC up there. Insult may come, Believe this people have been to.space is believing I came from Jupiter.

Saying the have flown few meters above the Earth's surface, I gree, do you even know there are rock debris thousand of feet away , have u ever heard of fish falling from the sky, this guys are good liars like Nigerian politicians.