How Long Does It Take to Get Hard Again
This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, only it's been updated with a related video.
The planet Mars is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, easily visible with the unaided eye equally a bright scarlet star. Every 2 years or so, Mars and Earth reach their closest point, called "opposition", when Mars tin can exist equally shut as 55,000,000 km from World. And every two years, space agencies take advantage of this orbital alignment to send spacecraft to the Red Planet. How long does it take to go to Mars?
The full journey time from World to Mars takes between 150-300 days depending on the speed of the launch, the alignment of Earth and Mars, and the length of the journey the spacecraft takes to reach its target. It actually but depends on how much fuel yous're willing to burn to become there. More fuel, shorter travel fourth dimension.
History of Going to Mars:
The first spacecraft ever to make the journey from Globe to Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, which launched on November 28, 1964 and arrived at Mars July xiv, 1965, successfully taking a series of 21 photographs. Mariner 4'due south total flight time was 228 days.
The side by side successful mission to Mars was Mariner 6, which blasted off on Feb 25, 1969 and reached the planet on July 31, 1969; a flying time of just 156 days. The successful Mariner seven only required 131 days to make the journey.
Mariner nine, the first spacecraft to successfully become into orbit effectually Mars launched on May 30, 1971, and arrived Nov 13, 1971 for a duration of 167 days. This is the same blueprint that has held up for more than almost fifty years of Mars exploration: approximately 150-300 days.
Here are some more examples:
- Viking one (1976) – 335 days
- Viking 2 (1976) – 360 days
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006) – 210 days
- Phoenix Lander (2008) – 295 days
- Curiosity Lander (2012) – 253 days
Why Does it Accept Then Long?:
When y'all consider the fact that Mars is simply 55 million km away, and the spacecraft are travelling in excess of 20,000 km/hour, you would expect the spacecraft to make the journey in about 115 days, but information technology takes much longer. This is because both Earth and Mars are orbiting around the Sun. You lot tin't point direct at Mars and commencement firing your rockets, because by the time you got at that place, Mars would take already moved. Instead, spacecraft launched from Globe demand to be pointed at where Mars is going to be.
The other constraint is fuel. Again, if you had an unlimited amount of fuel, y'all'd point your spacecraft at Mars, fire your rockets to the halfway point of the journeying, then turn effectually and decelerate for the concluding half of the journey. You could cutting your travel fourth dimension down to a fraction of the current rate – but y'all would need an impossible corporeality of fuel.
How to Go to Mars with the Least Amount of Fuel:
The master business organisation of engineers is how to become a spacecraft to Mars, on the least amount of fuel. Robots don't actually care about the hostile surround of space, and then it makes sense to decrease the launch costs of the rocket as much as possible.
NASA engineers use a method of travel called a Hohmann Transfer Orbit – or a Minimum Energy Transfer Orbit – to send a spacecraft from Earth to Mars with the least amount of fuel possible. The technique was first proposed by Walter Hohmann who published the first clarification of the maneuver in 1925.
Instead of pointing your rocket direct at Mars, y'all boost the orbit of your spacecraft so that it'due south following a larger orbit around the Sun than the Earth. Eventually that orbit volition intersect the orbit of Mars – at the verbal moment that Mars is there likewise.
If you lot need to launch with less fuel, you merely take longer to raise your orbit, and increment the journey to Mars.
Other Ideas to Subtract the Travel Time to Mars:
Although it requires some patience to wait for a spacecraft to travel 250 days to reach Mars, nosotros might desire a completely different propulsion method if we're sending humans. Space is a hostile identify, and the radiations of interplanetary space might pose a longterm wellness take chances to human astronauts. The background catholic rays inflict a abiding barrage of cancer-inducing radiations, but there'south a bigger chance of massive solar storms, which could kill unprotected astronauts in a few hours. If yous can decrease the travel time, you reduce the amount of time astronauts are getting pelted with radiations, and minimize the amount of supplies they need to carry for a return journeying.
Get Nuclear:
Ane idea is nuclear rockets, which heat up a working fluid – like hydrogen – to intense temperatures in a nuclear reactor, and so blast information technology out a rocket nozzle at high velocities to create thrust. Because nuclear fuels are far more free energy dense than chemical rockets, you could go a higher thrust velocity with less fuel. It's proposed that a nuclear rocket could decrease the travel time down to near 7 months
Go Magnetic:
Another proposal is a engineering science called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (or VASIMR). This is an electromagnetic thruster which uses radio waves to ionize and oestrus a propellant. This creates an ionized gas called plasma which tin can be magnetically thrust out the dorsum of the spacecraft at high velocities. Former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz is pioneering the evolution of this engineering, and a prototype is expected to be installed on the International Space Station to aid it maintain its altitude above Earth. In a mission to Mars, a VASIMR rocket could reduce the travel time down to 5 months.
Go Antimatter:
Peradventure one of the most extreme proposals would be to use an antimatter rocket. Created in particle accelerators, antimatter is the most dense fuel you could perchance employ. When atoms of matter meet atoms of antimatter, they transform into pure energy, as predicted by Albert Einstein'southward famous equation: Eastward = mc2. Just x milligrams of antimatter would be needed to propel a human mission to Mars in only 45 days. Merely then, producing even that minuscule amount of antimatter would cost near $250 one thousand thousand.
Future Missions to Mars:
Fifty-fifty though some incredible technologies have been proposed to shorten the travel time to Mars, engineers volition be using the tried and true methods of following minimum free energy transfer orbits using chemical rockets. NASA's MAVEN mission volition launch in 2013 using this technique, also ESA's ExoMars missions. It might be a few decades before other methods become common techniques.
Research further:
Data about Interplanetary Orbits – NASA
vii Minutes of Terror – The Challenge of Landing at Mars
NASA Proposal for a nuclear rocket engine
Hohmann Transfer Orbits – Iowa State University
Minimum Transfers and Interplanetary Orbits
New and Improved Antimatter Space Transport for Mars Missions – NASA
Astronomy Cast Episode 84: Getting Around the Solar Organization
Related Stories from Universe Today:
Travel to Mars in Only 39 Days
A One Way, One Person Mission to Mars
Could a Man Mission to Mars be Funded Commercially?
How Will MSL Navigate to Mars? Very Carefully
A Inexpensive Solution to Getting to Mars?
Why take so many missions to Mars failed?
This commodity originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, but information technology's been updated with a related video.
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