Mission to Mars (5 page)

For example, a beefed-up Block 2 version of Orion can be a crew test vehicle for aerocapture at Earth as well as at Mars. Aerocapture is “putting on the brakes” proficiency, using the drag of a planetary object’s atmosphere to decelerate. This fuel-saving advance requires the spacecraft to have sufficient thermal protection and the ability to precisely guide itself during the maneuver. Orion should pioneer aerocapture by early testing of this ability from lunar distance to low Earth orbit, a precursor step needed for the human crossing to Mars.

There’s another ingredient in the mix that can propel us beyond low Earth orbit. The International Space Station is first an indispensable test bed for ringing out long-duration life-support equipment. That orbiting outpost is also the place to prototype a specialized interplanetary exploration module, a component that can be modified to also serve as a safe haven for station crews. In addition, a specialized crewed interplanetary taxi should be evaluated at the space station. Both the exploration module and taxi must be capable of aerocapture at the atmosphere of either
Mars or Earth. In testing and using these elements, we are, at the same time, forging the technical dexterity of pushing off from low Earth orbit.

To routinely depart Earth, I envisage long-haul transportation systems, deep space cruisers that not only continuously cycle tourists between Earth and the moon, but constantly transfer explorers and settlers between Mars and Earth. A fully reusable lunar and interplanetary system is the best way of transporting people and cargo across the vast vacuum void of space.

This system of reusable spacecraft, which I call “cyclers,” should be put in motion—first between Earth and the moon, then between Earth and Mars. Very much like ocean liners, the cycler system would unendingly glide along predictable pathways, moving people, equipment, and other materials to and
from Earth over inner solar system mileage. A sequential buildup of a Full Cycling Network should be put in place, geared to the maturation of moon and Mars activities. I see Earth, the moon, and Mars forming a celestial triad of worlds. They will be busy hubs for the ebb and flow of passengers, cargo, and commerce traversing the inner solar system.

Artist’s concept: aerocapture at Mars

(
Illustration Credit 1.11
)

So, what is—or should be—the next goal for the American space program?

From a scientific, technology-advancing, meaningful, and politically inspiring point of view, in my opinion, it should be Mars, by way of one of the two moons that circle that world.

Buzz presents his Unified Space Vision during the 40th anniversary celebration of Apollo 11
.

(
Illustration Credit 1.12
)

We can dare to dream again and to lead. Let us challenge NASA, challenge the White House to think bigger, challenge ourselves to look beyond the moment, and inspire again an entire nation in a way that is evocative, at a time when our country is ready for real inspiration, challenge, leadership, and achievement. I hold dear my litmus test for the country’s space future: timeliness, affordability, and popularity.

Apollo 11 symbolized the ability of this nation to conceive a truly pathbreaking idea, prioritize it, create the technology to advance the idea, and then ride it to completion. Apollo is a case where we got it right. If we are to resurrect the profound feeling of participation that accompanied Apollo, we will need a Kennedy-like commitment to human exploration, which must begin with a permanent and profitable presence in space.

In my travels, the interesting thing I observe is that American leadership in space is appreciated more in foreign lands than it is within our own country—an understandable irony. This I see when I attend international gatherings of spacefaring countries, as well as meetings of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the only professional alliance for space fliers. Membership in ASE is open to individuals, from all nations, who have completed at least one orbit of Earth in a spacecraft.

In reaching outward with method and intent to Mars, and helping others go where we have already gone, America is once again in the business of a momentous and future-focused space exploration program.

Let’s roll … and roll up our sleeves and begin.

A lunar lander departs from a gateway station between Earth and moon in this artist’s concept of next steps in space exploration technology
.

There is angst regarding the future of U.S. space exploration. Given tight budgets, and the vagaries of U.S. congressional support, human destinations beyond low Earth orbit seem more distant than actual mileage. On the international front, America’s space leadership is arguably up for grabs. Russia is reformulating its space schedule, touting interest in establishing its own lunar base. China has already set in motion its human spaceflight program, methodically leading to modular buildup of an independent space station program and robotic lunar exploration, and seems intent on dotting the moon’s surface with footprints of Chinese astronauts.

There was a time when the U.S. trajectory in space flew straight and true, with no question about direction. To reach
beyond low Earth orbit requires a progressive suite of missions that are the vital underpinnings—a foundation—for a Unified Space Vision. Putting in place and staying on track with a unified approach to space program activities must begin now.

So travel with me on a journey of the imagination.

It starts in Earth orbit, where America’s space entrepreneurs have opened up the opportunity for hundreds of citizens to participate in the growing business of space tourism. Space adventurers are rocketing into space aboard a new, reusable spacecraft capable of runway landings and carrying out a variety of missions.

Meanwhile, early Block 1 exploration modules travel back and forth between Earth and the moon, as well as transit between Earth and Mars.

We fly by comets and intercept Earth-threatening asteroids. As we look out from our ship, we see the wispy tail of an ancient comet, full of dust, rock, and gas—a “dirty snowball” left over from the formation of the solar system billions of years ago.

We sweep the surface of an asteroid, sampling its rocky soil to delve into the nature of the early solar system and to study the essential building blocks that led to life here on Earth.

Step by step—just as Mercury and Gemini made Apollo possible—we move deeper into space to land on Phobos, the inner moon of Mars, all in prelude to a first human mission to touch down on the red planet itself!

My Unified Space Vision (USV) is a blueprint designed to maintain U.S. leadership in space exploration and human spaceflight. Let me be clear. I think exploration by itself is an
incomplete specification of what a future vision should be. In my deliberations with the Augustine Committee in 2009, I outlined a Unified Space Vision, one that brings together five items: exploration, science, development, commerce, and security, with security meaning both defense and planetary defense of our planet from near-Earth objects.

There is great need to steer clear of a counterproductive space race with China in their admitted goal to be second back to the moon. Getting caught up in such a race would derail a far greater objective and destination: An American-led, permanent human presence on Mars by 2035. My USV plan for the future calls for establishing a pathway of progressive missions in roughly two-year intervals. These bold journeys of exploration will require determination, support, and political will—as did our mission to the moon over four decades ago. If we have the vision, we can reach these destinations on the pathway to Mars within the next two decades.

And if we persevere on this path, we can reach out some 200 million miles to Mars before 2035—66 years after Neil Armstrong and I flew the quarter-million miles through the blackness of space to touch down onto Tranquillity Base. There’s a historical milestone in the fact that our Apollo 11 landing on the moon took place a mere 66 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight.

But to realize the dream of humans on Mars, we need a unified vision. We need to focus on a pathway while keeping an ever vigil eye on the prize.

Several years ago NASA was put on a technical trajectory to resume lunar exploration, duplicating, albeit in more
complicated ways, what the Apollo 11 flight did some four decades ago. The looming dilemma that stemmed from that approach then—called the Vision for Space Exploration—was a five-year gap between the shuttle program’s slated retirement in 2010 and the debut of the Ares I rocket and the new Orion spacecraft in 2015.

During that gap the United States set in motion the writing of checks to Russia in order to allow our astronauts to hitch rides on Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station, a facility in which we’ve invested $100 billion. That’s quite a deal, with the United States on the short end of the transaction.

My Unified Space Vision is a plan that will ensure America’s leadership role in space for the 21st century. It doesn’t require building new rockets from scratch, as NASA’s current plan does, and it makes maximum use of the capabilities we have now.

The USV is a reasonable and affordable plan, one that prescribes using the reliable Delta IV heavy-lift launcher to boost the next-generation Orion spacecraft, in place of the troubled Ares I rocket, to fill the gap. This would give NASA the kind of continuity and flexibility that marked the legacy missions of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

The plan renounces America’s goal of being first on the moon (again) in a new space race with China. Rather, it encourages America to initiate a lunar consortium whereby international partners—principally China, Europe, Russia, India, and Japan—will do the lion’s share of the planning, technical development, and funding for human missions back to the moon.

In the meantime America will be developing new strategies, new launch vehicles, and new spacecraft for the years beyond
2015 to bring us to the threshold of Mars, by way of progressive missions to comets, asteroids, and Mars’s moon Phobos.