Hopefully, humans will not be going to Mars within the lifetimes of any person now alive. Only unforeseen scientific and technological breakthroughs could change that hope. Antics like the
Mars One project, still at the crazy-talk stage, likewise do not diminish that hope.
Stunt as policy in U.S. human spaceflight is thoroughly ingrained into NASA by successive Presidents and Congresses. So much so that President Kennedy's iconic promise, to send men to Moon before the end of his decade, remains the proud centerpiece of NASA's website on the history of human spaceflight. From the Apollo Program's humble beginnings as "spam in a can" during the seminal Mercury Program, through the Moon-walk missions, where geologists and other scientists always played second fiddle to the engineers and astronauts, NASA didn't even send a geologist to do science on the Moon until the last mission, Apollo 17. The cost of the Moon Shot stunt was put down to geopolitical interests in the Cold War, not to science and research funding.
. . . continued out in the tall grass.
Years later, President Bush 43 blathered about sending humans to Mars, but it was only lines in a speech. Human presence in low Earth orbit presently stands assured through the continued operation of the International Space Station, ISS. Private enterprises are obtaining their own means of accessing low Earth orbits. NASA will continue in important roles in that sector, supporting both science and commerce. But objectives for higher orbit and interplanetary missions with NASA's new boosters and Orion habitat have remained shifting and unclear.
Then, along comes someone who understands the science that needs to be done and can explain it clearly, Dr. Mark V. Sykes, a scientist with a BA in Physics, and MA in Electronic Science, and two doctorates, one in Planetary Science and the other in Law. He is the CEO and Director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona and has a sufficient reputation in his field that a minor planet has been named for him, Minor Planet 4438 Sykes.
In an Op Ed published at Space News online, Dr. Sykes proposes that the next logical scientific frontier for human spaceflight is to explore ways to sustain it with resources already in space, like water in asteroids and the moon:
Perhaps it is time to move away from stunt as policy — a tragic legacy of the Apollo program. If we are going to confront a true frontier like space, we need to ask some basic questions to find out what is possible or at least practical. Then we can define long-term goals with a real plan to achieve them.
Dr. Sykes has that plan, too, based entirely on what the human space program is capable of doing right now and the research that needs to be done to extend the frontier:
With the Space Launch System and a scaled-down version of the electric propulsion system contemplated for ARM, let’s launch a small habitat to the L1 Lagrange point between Earth and the Moon. The astronauts in it would conduct investigations of the lunar surface by controlling small landed systems through immersive telepresence (used today in medicine and mines on Earth). The habitat could be also moved to the far side of the Moon, at L2, to conduct further experiments. In the meantime, long-term experience in the habitat and its maintenance would be gained and telepresence skills learned that could be extended to other solar system bodies as well as spacecraft.
In parallel, a version of the planned centrifuge for the ISS that was canceled in 2006 could be sent up to conduct fundamental life-science experiments that will answer the question of whether Earth is the only planetary basket we have in which to keep our eggs.
Studies need to be conducted on ISS to develop the processes to extract water and other materials from asteroid samples in our possession — meteorites. Simulants — materials simulating the expected chemical and mechanical properties of asteroid samples — would also be tested. How would we design an automated resource extraction unit to operate in the nearly zero gravity and uncertain topography of a near-Earth asteroid? Could something like a deployable solar sail be designed to return processed materials to Earth-Moon space?
The future of human space exploration may very well depend upon our ability to find and extract, cheaply, water, in particular, and other valuable materials, as well, from rocks in near-Earth space. Dr. Sykes' plan for exploring that idea lacks the drama and sex appeal, perhaps, of a circus stunt like a human mission to Mars. So, what? It's damn good science. Sustaining large scale interplanetary travel by humans will require support and sustenance from space resources. Dr. Sykes is a legitimate and respected voice within NASA, participating in several missions and mission areas. One hopes his ideas will gain traction in preference to more stunt as policy in U.S. Human Spaceflight.
For all things Mars on Daily Kos, visit Kossacks on Mars.