• Question: Why arent they sending humans into space, i.e to the moon or mars??

    Asked by sweatymorgs202 to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 11 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by ConnorM.
    • Photo: Jane MacArthur

      Jane MacArthur answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      There have been humans living continuously in orbit for the past 13 years, on the international space station. In order to manage sustained missions into deeper space, its been really important to run a lot of test and experiments on how to live, work and stay healthy in space on a day to day basis.

      NASA are working on the SLS, the Space Launch System, which they hope will send humans around the Moon and maybe to a captured asteroid by 2025. The European Space Agency are helping to develop the Orion capsule, which will contain the astronauts on top of the SLS rocket – Orion has its first test flight next month, where it will orbit the Earth and test re-entry and splashdown. They hope to send an (unmanned) SLS around the Moon and back ~2018.

      In the meantime, the Chinese successfully sent a rover to the Moon last year, and are working on a sample return mission next. They have their own small space station, and we think they are likely to have humans on the Moon by ~2025.

    • Photo: Hugh Osborn

      Hugh Osborn answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Space is difficult. We have to launch humans as fast as a bullet out of the atmosphere towards another planet or the moon and do it safely – that is a huge technical challenge.

      It’s also incredibly expensive. In the 1960s, the US spent more than 5% of all their tax money on getting 12 Apollo astronauts like Neil Armstrong to the moon. It now gets less than 0.5%. I think the benefits (from new inventions and from inspiring a generation) made the Apollo programme worth it, and will make future missions worth it too, but the governments that make the decisions simply dont.

      However, private companies could help. Companies like SpaceX are already launching rockets to the space station, and they want to get to the Moon or Mars within the next 20 years. So there is definitely hope that we will send astronauts away from the Earth again soon!

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I think partly we have lost some of the pioneering spirit.
      Everything today is very much concerned with health and safety, and strapping humans to a large pile of the most explosive chemicals we can find to throw them into space is somewhat against todays culture.

      However there are those willing to take the risks, witness the brave pilots of spaceship two, one of who lost his life in the pursuit of building new space ships.

      I’d love to see more spaceships, space stations, bases on the Moon and Mars. I think it will come eventually, but progress is slow since the days of Apollo.

      Space exploration is risky, but then so are many rewarding things.
      As they said about the end of Apollo program
      “Its like Columbus sailing across the ocean to discover America, then just coming back and saying I’ve done that now…”

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