NASA working on ride to Red Planet

Washington: Using a step-wise approach, NASA could land astronauts on the Red Planet by the end of the 2030s in an efficient and cost-effective way, new research says. Before astronauts attempt to land on the dusty Martian surface, they must first be prepared to touch down on one of Mars' two tiny moons, Phobos or Deimos to minimise the risks involved and save money too, the researchers suggested.

Hoppy Price from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and colleagues have prepared a mission architecture that gets astronauts to Phobos by 2033 then down to Mars by 2039, Space.com reported. This effort would require four launches of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS); the largest, most powerful rocket booster ever built and set to launch the unmanned Orion spacecraft in 2018.

The first SLS launch in 2029 will take the astronauts to the Mars orbit in just less than four years. A second SLS liftoff would carry the Phobos base which could support a crew of four. The third SLS launch around 2032 would carry a deep-space habitat to the Earth's orbit. The last SLS liftoff would then send NASA's Orion capsule and a crew of four up to meet this pre-placed gear. It will help take the astronauts to the Mars orbit in a journey lasting 200 to 250 days.