It's nearly impossible to send manned mission to Mars, NASA scientist explains why

Mars is a perfect inspiration for science fiction stories. It's recognisable and well-studied, yet it's also unique and far enough away to entice fantastical experiences.

Hollywood has created several science fiction movies about a man going to Mars. The Martian is the closest movie that attempts to explain the problems humans will have while exploring the red planet. However, it ignores space radiation, the most challenging subject that astronauts face.

Chandrayaan-3 has landed on the moon, and people are already excited about India's upcoming missions. Among the ideas, the mission to send a man to Mars remains on the top.

The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013. NASA also launched Perseverance, a small robotic helicopter Ingenuity, and associated delivery systems as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. While India and several other nations are working on various projects around Mars, no one has been able to send a human to the red planet.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claims he will transport 1 million people to Mars by 2050. However, NASA scientist Dr Michelle Thaller explained that with the current technology, it is impossible to protect the astronauts travelling to Mars because the radiation from the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) will kill human beings long before they reach.

Normal radiation exists in space. The ozone layer in the earth's stratosphere protects us by absorbing all the radiation. However, it expands multifold when a solar flare erupts on the Sun or a CME sweeps over an area in space.

A recent discovery found a correlation between the dying clouds of Neptune and rising solar activity. If the Sun can impact Neptune, the farthest planet in our solar system, it can affect a spacecraft between Earth and Mars, Dr Thaller told The US Sun. The radiation can cause radiation poisoning, various types of cancer, degenerative and genetic disorders, and even death.

NASA astronaut Stan Love told The US Sun that there's simply no chance of creating a human colony on Mars by 2050 until we discover a new technology that can protect us against deadly radiation.

(With inputs from agencies)



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