First my apologies for blogging all over the place in topics. In a way I’m responding to readership. some comments, questions and emails I’ve gotten ask me questions and I’m responding. The topics are determined by my willingness to answer those.

OK so this post I’ll be dealing with the reality of going to Mars and back. Forget money. Forget politics. The real questions are CAN we go and SHOULD we go?

The answer to the question of should we go is easiest. YES! For sure we should go. Why the heck not? Should it be within this generation? maybe not. But that more lay in the realm of CAN we go.

So can we? Well, currently, No. If we put all the money, politics and manpower we needed can we? No. Sorry if that’s bad news. Technologically we just aren’t ready for this challenge. Much as I’d love to see it happen.

THE biggest problem is our sun. The constant bombardment of radiation outside the earth/moon system would subject our travellers to ten times the radiation of a nuclear power plant workers lifetime limit.  Its just not healthy for them. But, there is promise. New materials are being developed and a composite of these materials will help.

The next biggest hurdle is the lack of gravity. Sure we can spin the ship and do some exercise but that may not be enough to keep bones and muscles in healthy working order.

Another stumbling block is the return trip. Even if we get there the road home is way harder then the road there. Basically we’d have to build two ships. One would have to be parked at Mars for the return before the manned ship could even leave our cradle. That first ship would need double the fuel and a supply of food for the return ship. If we sent enough small missions in preparation then we could try to set up a fuel depot on the surface.

Being on the surface of Mars would not shield our astronauts from radiation and in a way it would be worse. The constant dust everywhere clogging up joint and critical life systems is a worry. As well as the occasional wind twirling up the dust to make it more like sandpaper would be a problem even after only a short time on the surface.

Personally I don’t see the psychological effects of months of isolation as a road block but NASA sure does worry about it. I think if we humans have a mission in mind and have training in respecting personal space within a chain of command then these professionals would have no problem. maybe I’m too optimistic on the human condition in this respect.

The track record of accuracy for delivering unmanned probes to the fourth planet isn’t that great. Sure the recent results are awesome. We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the space race. That doesn’t mean we are ready for a manned trip.

Really if we want to do this we need a lot more technology. We need a lot more trips. We need a lot more resources on the planet before we can even think of making the trip. It would be far easier to setup base on the moon.