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Musk and Moscow Plan Manned Mission To Mars

16th Dec 2024

Recenty to disparate entities made statements regarding space travel and potentially sending a maned space mission to the planet Mars.
One was the new on the block Space X tycoon and new best friend of Donald Trump who has set alight to the Space over the lat few years with his groundbreaking rocket technology.
The other is Roscosmos, which is the grandfather of space exploration,it put the first satellite into space in 1957 ( Sputnik) and then put both a Man and a Woman ( Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tesheshkova ) in to space before Elon Musk was even the result of his mother's sexual adventures.
Now it seems Russia and the US Space X have entered a virtual race to be the first to plant their flag on Mars. But their planned dates for a manned expedition to the fourth planet differ by several decades. It seems both parties serious differences in their target datesand this is due to different ideas about how to get there and how to pay for it.

Last month, both Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk both spoke seperately spoke about plans to land a man on Mars. The colossal difference in their level of ambition is striking.

According to Yuri Borisov, such a project will not be feasible for at least half a century. Speaking to journalists, he explained such a long time frame for the expedition by both the technical challenges and the need for careful psychological preparation of the future crew for many years in each other's company without the opportunity to "go out for walk in the park or to the pub for a beer".

The last Roscosmos document mentioning anyting to do with Mars is dated 2022. In the same year, Yuri Borisov reported that Russia would be technologically ready to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. But on 28 November 2024, Roscosmos announced an indefinite postponement of the flight to the Earth's satellite due to budget constraints in the creation of the Yenisei super-heavy rocket. Under these conditions, it is hard to imagine a disproportionately more expensive and longer expedition to Mars (about 220 million km versus 380 thousand to the Moon) in the next half century.
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Mr. Musk's forecasts are considerably more radical. Mr. Musk estimates that the first human flight to Mars could take place before the end of the current decade. In light of these statements, it seems that the billionaire is willing to risk becoming the proverbial "haste makes waste" hero, as is often said in his homeland. Mr. Musk also offers a pragmatic warning: to send such an expedition, the cost of launching a payload into space must be reduced by a factor of 10,000. The current capabilities of rocket technology make the cost of the mission prohibitively expensive, estimated at approximately $1 billion per ton of payload. This is a mere 0.5% of Musk's estimated fortune of about $200 billion.

A significant reduction in the cost of launching a fully-loaded heavy ship to Mars can only be achieved through a substantial technological shift in cargo transportation, according to developers. It is believed that chemical engines, whether solid or liquid, are not suitable for manned flights to deep space due to their limitations in power and efficiency when used in near-Earth orbital missions. In light of this, NASA has been developing an engine that operates on nuclear thrust (NTP, YARD) for several years. The engine is capable of delivering at least twice the power of existing chemical engines.

Accordingly, the system with a nuclear rocket engine is capable of covering the distance from Earth to Mars in half the time it takes rockets currently used to deliver automatic probes to the Red Planet. At present, the duration of such trips is dependent on the relative positions of the planets, with journeys taking up to two years. For the robot, the length of the trip is not a critical factor, while a reduction in the time of a manned flight also has the benefit of reducing the weight of consumables (water, food, etc.). This also has the effect of reducing the psychological endurance requirements for astronauts, as mentioned by the head of Roscosmos.
The testing of a nuclear engine in Russia was first announced by President Vladimir Putin in 2018. Mr. Putin referenced the Burevestnik project, a nuclear engine being developed for use in combat missiles, during his address to the Federal Assembly. An expert has submitted a request to Roscosmos for information on the possibility of installing this engine on an interplanetary rocket. At the time of publication, the agency had not yet responded to the request.

NASA is more forthcoming about its innovative plans. The American agency has indicated that prototypes of an engine with a nuclear reactor can be tested in 2027. In contrast to the power plant on nuclear submarines, where nuclear fuel heats water vapour that rotates turbines, a nuclear plant on a spacecraft heats hydrogen, which serves as a working fluid, creating a jet thrust to accelerate the device. The hydrogen will have to be sourced from the ground, but it is the lightest gas and is many times lighter than any fuel for a traditional rocket.

At present, there are no operational models of NRE that are suitable for use in spacecraft in either the United States or Russia. The primary challenge in installing a nuclear engine on a spacecraft is its size and weight. Pavel Bulat, head of the Mechanics and Energy Systems Laboratory at the National Research University ITMO, explained to Expert: "Engineers must achieve a significant reduction in the scale of the nuclear power plant to ensure it can be launched into space without loss of power using existing methods." The current weight of the item makes launching it unfeasible. I believe that for this reason, NRE will not be used even in 50 years. In theory, as Academician Valentin Glushko stated, it is feasible to launch a skyscraper into orbit. However, there are more ergonomic solutions available. "Chemical engines are a more cost-effective, straightforward, and secure option."
The testing of a nuclear engine in Russia was first announced by President Vladimir Putin in 2018. Mr. Putin made reference to the Burevestnik project, a nuclear engine currently in development for use in combat missiles, during his address to the Federal Assembly. An expert has submitted a request to Roscosmos for information on the possibility of installing this engine on an interplanetary rocket. As of the time of publication, the agency had not yet responded to the request.

NASA is more transparent about its innovative plans. The American agency has indicated that it plans to test prototypes of an engine with a nuclear reactor in 2027. In contrast to the power plant on nuclear submarines, where nuclear fuel heats water vapour that rotates turbines, a nuclear plant on a spacecraft heats hydrogen, which serves as a working fluid, creating a jet thrust to accelerate the device. The hydrogen will need to be sourced from the ground, but it is the lightest gas and is many times lighter than any fuel for a traditional rocket.