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Visiting Mars Means Cutting Back on Space Station Funding: Report

The International Space Station is funded through 2024, but America may have to step out its leadership role if a trip to Mars is going to happen.
​Image: NASA

The International Space Station is funded through 2024, but America may have to step out its leadership role if a trip to Mars is going to happen.

As a "Humans Orbiting Mars" workshop wrapped up in Washington, DC this week, a group of 70 scientists affirmed a report from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that found that a manned mission to Mars is feasible, assuming funding is available and that an orbital mission is taken first.

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Sponsored by the non-governmental, Carl Sagan-founded, Bill Nye-headed Planetary Society, the group of attendees presented how feasible they found it would be for NASA to put astronauts on Mars by 2039, after first putting them in Martian orbit in 2033.

Among the points the experts reached consensus on: NASA can do it, but only if it sends people to orbit Mars first. More importantly, given its current budget NASA could only afford to carry out a manned Mars mission if the administration gives up its lead role at the International Space Station.

This might be one of those political hurdles that stands in the way, and political hurdles—more than technological or biomedical—were revealed as workshop chair and Stanford professor Scott Hubbard's least favorite kind. Nevertheless, Hubbard deemed the workshop a success.

Mars's moon Phobos. Image: ​ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

"We believe we now have an example of a long term, cost constrained, executable humans-to-Mars program," he said in a statement. "This workshop was an important step in community-building among the many groups interested in Mars science and exploration."

There are, of course, groups still interested in hanging out and keeping the space station party going. The head of Russia's Roscosmos announced on Saturday that his agency was planning on teaming up with NASA on a second international space station, only for the American space agency to issue a statement that amounts to "thanks, but we're busy."

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"We are pleased Roscomos wants to continue full use of the International Space Station through 2024—a priority of ours—and expressed interest in continuing international cooperation for human space exploration beyond that," NASA stated, while denying its involvement in ISS 2.0.

It's hard not to hear an implied "but" in the very next sentence in NASA's statement: "The United States is planning to lead a human mission to Mars in the 2030s, and we have advanced that effort farther than at any point in NASA's history."

NASA affirmed its commitment to the current ISS, and added that sending Scott Kelly to the ISS for a year was preparation for the long spaceflight to Mars, and the political lessons from ISS may end up being as important as the scientific ones.

Still, ISS funding might be one of those political hurdles that stands in the way of a Mars mission, and political hurdles—more than technological or biomedical—were revealed as the workshop chair and Stanford professor Scott Hubbard's least favorite kind. Nevertheless, Hubbard deemed the workshop a success.

"We believe we now have an example of a long term, cost constrained, executable humans to Mars program," he said in a statement. "This workshop was an important step in community-building among the many groups interested in Mars science and exploration."

According to a statement released by the Planetary Society, "an orbital mission will enable scientific exploration of Mars and its moons while developing essential experience in human travel from Earth to the Mars system."

The reason an orbital mission is deemed so essential is because it will require human beings to be in space longer than anyone has ever been, going farther than anyone has ever gone. The mission to send people to orbit Mars, with the opportunity ​to visit Martian moons, would last approximately 30 months. It will take nine months to get there and back, with a year in orbit around the moon in between, the panelists said.

The longest that anyone has ever been in space is 14 months, logged by the cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, aboard the Mir space station from 1994 to '95. Another cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, holds the record for the most time spent in space cumulatively, which adds up to two years and two months—a record that any Phobos visitors will blow past, just like Apollo 13's record for farthest distance our species has traveled from Earth.

"Getting humans to Mars is far more complex than getting to Earth's Moon," Bill Nye said. "But space exploration brings out the best in us. By reaching consensus on the right set of missions, we can send humans to Mars without breaking the bank."

One conclusion that the "Humans Orbiting Mars" group also reached was that the mission to Mars will eventually build a framework to include private and international partners. This is how the ISS works already: astronauts currently reach it via the Russian space program, and supplies are beginning to be sent through SpaceX. With that in mind, maybe the first step to Mars has already been taken.