Astronomy Features Physics

The long road to Mars

Something about going to Mars has captivated the space-curious for generations; from scientists who want to build the spaceships and go, to politicians who can approve the spending. “Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea,” said US President George W Bush in 2004, when he proposed spending $12bn to get to the Moon by 2020 as a stepping stone to Mars. Not to be outdone, President Barack Obama announced in 2016 that he wanted to get people to Mars by 2030, and more recently, President Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing $19.5bn to go towards NASA’s quest to have humans visit Mars. (“You could send Congress to space,” one senator quipped at the signing.)

Getting people to Mars is more than just political hyperbole, however, and that vision is slowly shifting from science fiction into science fact. This summer, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to pack and ship a 4 m-tall and 5 m-diameter cylindrical space vehicle from Bremen, Germany, where it’s been under construction for the last four years. It will be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will become an integral part of the most ambitious plan for space exploration ever hatched by humankind.

Read the rest of the article in the February 2018 issue of Physics World here.