Program Information

Series: Destination Tomorrow
Program: Episode 18
Segment Number: 4 (Watch entire program)
Duration: 00:10:10
Year Produced: 2005
Description:

Fourth segment of NASA Destination Tomorrow episode 18 explaining the challenges that astronauts face with living and working on other planets. This segment also explores issues such as radiation, gravity, duration of missions and food supply.

NASA's Destination Tomorrow™ is a series of 30-minute programs that focus on NASA research. Each exciting program gives the audience an inside look at NASA and demonstrates how research and technology relate to our everyday lives.

For more information visit: http://destination.larc.nasa.gov/

Transcript

The prospect of living
and working on other worlds
is very exciting,
but there are many questions
that need to be answered
before this vision
can become a reality.

Food concerns,
radiation exposure,
spacesuits that can withstand
the rigors placed upon them,
and a host of other problems
are concerns for NASA planners.

Johnny Alonso spoke with
Lisa Guerra at NASA headquarters
to find out How It Works.

(Alonso)
In the late '60s and early '70s,
researchers at NASA
learned quite a bit
about living and working
on other worlds
with the success
of the Apollo Moon landings.

These missions helped broaden
our understanding
of how humans
could work and interact
outside of the comforts
of Earth.

But even though much was learned
about problems astronauts
would face on other worlds,
the human presence on the Moon
was relatively short--
generally only a few days
at a time.

Future missions to Mars
will be much longer,
potentially lasting
years at a time.

Things that many of us
take for granted,
such as food, clothing,
medical care, and safety,
will be some
of the biggest challenges
that need to be addressed
by NASA planners.

To help us understand
what is being done
to prepare for
these long-duration missions,
I spoke with Lisa Guerra
at NASA headquarters
to find out How It Works.

The major challenge
to live and work on other worlds
is predominantly
adapting to a new environment.

The crews will be coming
to these new worlds--
and the one we've been looking
at in particular is Mars--
and have to arrive
and adapt to the environment,
and that environment on Mars
involves 1/3
of our Earth's gravity
as well as different
weather patterns;
dust storms, which we are
particularly concerned with;
radiation,
which we have to measure
and understand how to protect
the crews against.

And in particular,
these crews will be traveling
for long distances
from Earth to Mars,
and we will have to have
the crews fend for themselves
once they get there.

There will not be hosts
of doctors and NASA personnel
when they arrive.

And so are they physically able
to adapt to this environment
as soon as they get there?

So when our astronauts
arrive at Mars,
will they have to build
permanent bases,
or could they just live on the
spacecraft that they arrive in?

Whether they live
in their spacecraft
or we would have to have a more
permanent habitat for them
would depend on how long
they would stay at Mars,
and there are
two different approaches
to sending crews to Mars.

One involves a short stay,
and that's on the length
of about 30 days
on the surface of Mars.

If that's how long
they would be there,
they could probably live
out of their spacecraft,
much like
the Apollo astronauts did.

However, if we take the other
approach to going to Mars,
they could be there
for almost 500 days--
from a year to 500 days
in Mars vicinity.

And in that case,
it's a very long time
for six people to live
out of one spacecraft,
so we would probably have
a larger habitat
and presence on the surface.

It would also mean
we'd probably need other
power sources than solar power
because they'd have to sustain
their activities
for such a long period of time,
and with the weather
and dust conditions,
it makes solar power
very difficult on Mars.

So, Lisa, when astronauts
are on Mars for years at a time,
how would they get
their food and water?

As I mentioned,
if they could stay
for over a year,
ideally, you could use
some of the resources
that might be on Mars.

And with our current
Mars robotic program,
we are trying to determine
the levels
of potential water
or water ice on the planet.

And if we do find sources
in large quantities of water,
we could use that for the crews
as well as use it in fuel cells
for power generation.

We could also use
the atmosphere,
which is made up
predominantly of carbon dioxide,
and you could use methods
to decompose the carbon dioxide
into oxygen,
and then we could use that
oxygen for the spacecraft air.

As far as food goes, again,
if you have water and oxygen,
you could ultimately see
the crews developing
their own growth chambers
and actually growing
their own food,
and that would be something
we'd look into
if we were staying there
for a long time.

What are some of the differences
astronauts might face,
you know, working on the Moon
compared to working on Mars?

The difference between
spending and occupying time
on the Moon to Mars
first and foremost
is that the Moon
is much closer to the Earth:
about a three-day trip.

We could actually rescue
the crews, if necessary.

They could come back
and get medical care.

They would not have to be
as self-sufficient,
and you could set up, like,
a ferry system with logistics
much like we do
with the space station.

So again,
the crews could operate
for varying amounts of time
but still be reliant
on the Earth,
whereas the distance to Mars
is so much greater,
we'd have to build the
reliability and maintainability
into our systems
and have the crews be
much more self-sufficient.

[rock music]

Right now, NASA is planning
to use the Moon
as a test bed for Mars.

This would be primarily
a systems-type test bed.

Design some of these
life-support systems
and spacesuits
and use them and work them
on the Moon
and learn from that
engineering experience
and then improve the design
for Mars.

(Alonso)
One major challenge
that will need to be addressed
will be what type of spacesuit
our astronauts will wear
on other worlds.

The current suits
used on the shuttle
and in the space station
work well,
but they're not designed
for full-range motions,
like walking and working
on a planetary surface.

So future suits
will probably look more like
the suits that were used
during the Apollo program.

These new suits will need to be
much more durable
and better suited
for the harsh conditions
astronauts will encounter
on other worlds.

[distorted rock music]

(Guerra)
The other issue, though,
with spacesuits for Mars
is the dust issue.

The dust tends to be
very electrostatic,
and there are concerns that
if you came into the habitat
or the airlock with your suit,
that dust would get circulated
into the air system.

So there are concepts
being developed
where maybe the suit
never comes into your habitat,
that you actually
step out of it--
like, walk out from the back
of your suit into your habitat,
and the suit's always exposed
to the environment.

We're looking at this
as not just a milestone
but a journey to actually get
beyond Earth orbit,
to get beyond the Moon
and go to other worlds.

And so everything we do today
and everything we expect to do
in the next couple of decades
will give us the capability
to enable us to get to Mars.

And it may not be
within my career,
but it may be the young
engineers in school today,
that they will see it through
and the next generation
and the next generation.

So that's How It Works.

So for the next generation
of explorers,
a walk on Mars
might be in the cards.

With my pull here at NASA,
I just might see you there.

That's it for this edition
of Destination Tomorrow.

I'm Steele McGonegal.

And I'm Kera O'Bryon.

For all of us here at NASA,
we'll see you next time.

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