Today, NASA is inviting you to participate in the next monumental journey of a lifetime.
A journey to extend the frontiers of human exploration....
gaze across alien landscapes,
and see our Sun rise over new horizons.
Nearly 3.8 billion years ago,
Prokaryotes, the first known singled-celled organisms appeared in Earth's oceans
becoming the harbor for new life in our solar system.
Today NASA's Mars orbiters, rovers and landers have discovered that the red planet could've had water on its surface early in its history too
but something happened.
The surface water and atmosphere on Mars were lost.
Did life once evolve on Mars, and suddenly cease?
Could Earth ultimately experience the same fate?
To find out, astronauts will need to make the trip to Mars.
However, the technological and biological knowledge NASA needs to make the trip safely does not exist....yet.
Today, NASA's fleet of robotic scientific explorers at Mars are paving the way for human exploration.
In 2012, NASA landed it's largest and most sophisticated rover on Mars.
Its name is Curiosity.
Its purpose is to determine if past conditions on Mars could have supported life,
and to investigate cosmic radiation challenges.
These investigations will be useful in designing spacesuit and equipment,
to protect the astronauts while traveling there in the future.
This journey will take about nine months,
a long time to live in a spacecraft before reaching Mars.
Astronauts will face many biological and cosmic challenges.
Without Earth's gravity, astronauts will experience a decline in bone density,
reduction in muscle mass,
changes in vision,
and other physiological and psychological effects.
Getting to Mars is hard, but NASA is committed to solving the challenges.
NASA is practicing living in space on the International Space Station.
This world-class National Laboratory houses a crew as it continuously orbits Earth.
Testing various technologies and human capabilities and low Earth orbit and try
Astronaut's test their food, water, and waste systems
and astronauts are now making one year visits to the station
while testing and refining reliable deep space systems.
To make the trip
NASA is going to need a larger, more powerful rocket system than has ever been developed in the space program.
This transportation system is in production, and has three components.
An advanced spacecraft called, Orion to house the crew.
A powerful, expandable rocket Space Launch System, or the SLS
and a modern spaceport with an assembly plant and new launch site.
Which are currently being built at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
All three components of this system have to be ready at the same time, and must fit together perfectly.
The Orion is unlike any spacecraft that has ever been built.
It will hold four astronauts, and take humans to a variety of space destinations.
In 2014, Orion launched for the first time from Kennedy Space Center
on a substitute standard rocket.
The flight tested critical systems, and the 16 and a half foot heat shield that will protect the crew from the searing heat during re-entry.
The spacecraft impacted Earth's atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour
with the heat shield reaching a blistering 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite the scorching temperatures outside, the interior maintained a comfortable temperature
around seventy five degrees
The next time Orion takes flight, it won't be orbiting Earth.
It will orbit the moon, and Orion is going to need a more powerful ride.
It has been 40 years since NASA built a rocket that takes humans beyond Earth orbit.
The new SLS will have a large version that can send a habitat and supplies to Mars orbit and surface
in advance of a smaller version that will take the astronaut crew.
Right now, we are working toward the first integrated test flight of Orion and SLS.
However the most powerful rocket in the world needs a modern assembly facility, and heavy-duty ground support.
The ground systems team at Kennedy Space Center is working hard to redesign and rebuild
the launchpad, flame trench, and pad structure
to withstand the incredible nine million pounds of thrust generated by the SLS.
Landing on mars will require advanced technology
an entirely different engineering
Mars lacks the atmosphere to land vehicles with friction and parachute, as done on Earth.
The heavier landers of tomorrow
some (as large as a two-story building) will require
new entry, descent, and landing technologies, and new woven heat resistant materials.
NASA is testing a new low density supersonic decelerator
that is equipped with a drag device deployed at supersonic speeds
Once on Mars, astronauts will have to live off the land, as pioneers have done on Earth.
NASA will need technologies that can
filter oxygen and recycle water from the surface of Mars
and will need to develop complex environmental control and communication systems
to enable critical capabilities required to extend human presence onto the Martian surface.
To explore Mars, astronauts will also need technologies for transportation systems
that can move humans and cargo across tens of millions of miles, as well as,
small mobile power plants to provide energy.
In preparation for destination Mars, astronauts are going to need to practice working in deep space.
In parallel to all of these technology developments
NASA is now planning a robotic spacecraft to journey into deep space
to capture a large boulder from an asteroid.
This colossal space rock may contain water, carbon, methane, sulfur or even iron.
Using advanced solar electric propulsion, the spacecraft will move the massive
asteroid boulder safely into orbit around our moon.
The mission, Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM is a key capability demonstration for a future Mars barge
that may deliver supplies and a habitat prior to the crews arrival.
This mission also lays a piece of the groundwork for a potential planetary defense system
against asteroids that could threaten Earth.
Before returning the large asteroid boulder to lunar orbit
the spacecraft will perform a maneuver to demonstrate the capability to alter an asteroids path.
What happens next is right from the pages of science fiction
and is a critical step towards testing technologies that will enable us to explore Mars.
Humans will venture deeper into space than ever before
to inspect the multi ton boulder positioned in orbit.
For this mission, humanity will travel over 300,000 miles into space
to touch a fraction of the cosmos.
The mission will test new space suits and systems
while the astronauts select and gather samples from the primitive multi ton mass.
Other missions of Orion and SLS in the area between Earth and the moon
will conduct exercises in advanced life support,
deep space habitation, orbit changes, and staging assembly operations.
All needed for future human missions to Mars.
Just as looking back to Earth from the moon during the Apollo era
shaped how we perceive our place in the solar system,
watching Earth fade to a small blue dot of light as we travel farther into the cosmos
will surely enhance our understanding of the universe.
Join NASA as we view new horizons.
Work with us as we push forward to develop new technologies, and innovations that will benefit humankind
and take us beyond the boundaries of human exploration.
Join us on NASA's journey to Mars.