Astronaut Chris Hadfield says the rockets from NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin won't take people to Mars

[dufus]

Chris Hadfield, perhaps most widely known for his zero-gravity guitar playing, has seen an impressive amount of space travel.

Between his first spaceflight in 1995, his second in 2001, and a third in 2013, Hadfield has flown inside NASA space shuttles, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and the International Space Station.

Hadfield, who's now retired, shares his expertise about rockets, spaceships, spacewalking, and Mars exploration in a new web course on the online platform MasterClass.

To follow up on those lessons, we asked Hadfield what he thinks about the future rocket ships of three major players in the new space race: NASA's Space Launch System, SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket, and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

His response isn't encouraging to those who'd like to see boots on Martian ground within the next decade or two, let alone have people settle on the red planet.

"Personally, I don't think any of those three rockets is taking people to Mars," Hadfield told Business Insider. "I don't think those are a practical way to send people to Mars because they're dangerous and it takes too long."

'The majority of the astronauts that we send on those missions wouldn't make it'

A scene from "The Martian," a blockbuster sci-fi movie about an astronaut stranded on Mars.Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

Hadfield's stance stems from the fact that all three rocket systems rely on similar fuels (plus oxygen) to lift off Earth and propel the ship through space.

"My guess is we will never go to Mars with the engines that exist on any of those three rockets unless we truly have to," he said.

NASA's Space Launch System, expected to debut in the 2020s, will power its engines with a combination of liquid hydrogen and solid chemical fuels. Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, is also looking to use liquid hydrogen. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is staking its future on burning liquid methane, which the company believes it can generate on the Martian surface.

Like other experts, Hadfield doesn't doubt that any of the vehicles could actually get to Mars — his issue is with the safety of any humans on board. Explosions, radiation, starvation, and other problems would constantly threaten a mission.

"We could send people to Mars, and decades ago — I mean, the technology that took us to the moon and back when I was just a kid, that technology can take us to Mars, but it would be at significant risk," he said. "The majority of the astronauts that we send on those missions wouldn't make it; they'd die. Because the technology is still quite primitive."

Rocket makers aren't unaware of the challenges. NASA was founded with the understanding that spaceflight is an inherently risky enterprise, and it has lived through painful examples. And Musk has repeatedly said people will probably die on his company's future voyages to Mars.

"The first journey to Mars is going to be really very dangerous," Musk said in 2016. "The risk of fatality will be high. There's just no way around it."

But Hadfield believes those risks mean we should instead be patient and slowly build up to the goal of putting humans on Mars.

"You really have to answer the question why," he said. "Why are we going? Why wouldn't we just send robots for quite a while until we learn a lot more about Mars?"

Crossing the vast ocean between Earth and Mars

Reusable spaceships might enable SpaceX to colonize Mars.SpaceX/YouTube

Hadfield said the rocket ships in development would be key stepping stones in the quest to explore our solar system.

But he added that using those vessels to shuttle people 140 million miles to Mars, even with new materials and computer automation, would be akin to crossing a giant ocean in a canoe or paddle boat.

"We're sort of like those early sailing ships in that we don't even know what we don't know yet," he said, referring to the historic voyages of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and James Cook. "I think we need some more improvements in technology before we'll cross the oceans that are between us and Mars in any sort of practical way."

Hadfield said he didn't know what those technologies might be, though he noted the recent advancements in ion propulsion and NASA's resurgent interest in nuclear reactors. There could even one day be breakthroughs in investigations of dark matter and dark energy that would help this effort.

"Maybe the work that's going on with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the space station and in the particle accelerator in CERN and other places ... is going to show us how we can harness gravity," he said. "It sounds outlandish, but we figured out how to harness electricity and what electrons do, and that seemed crazy, and it's revolutionized life and travel. So who knows?"

 

https://www.businessinsider.de/chris-hadfield-mars-travel-nasa-spacex-blue-origin-2018-6?r=US&IR=T

[steven36]

Many people  still believe the earth is flat and no one ever been to the moon that it was all fake and just made up by the Government and  Hollywood . A  skeptic is born into the world everyday .

 

Why do some people believe the moon landings were a hoax?

https://science.howstuffworks.com/moon-landing-hoax.htm

 

If what these people say was true and this guy that believes no one will go mars is trying to tell us we landed on the moon, many don't believe we ever did, so he just sounds crazy to them, and he reminds you of them and is a skeptic ,he don't have esp and he don't know if people will go to mars or not and nether does anyone else . 

 

Why do people still think the Earth is flat?

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/41973119/why-do-people-still-think-the-earth-is-flat

 

The experts told people they never would put a man on the moon and the earth was flat back in day was the reason these beliefs came along . If some one told you to jump of a bridge because the water will save you would you do it?  If you did you most likely would drown anyway. Humans think they know everything but they don't even know what's going to happen 5 minutes from now much less 20 years from now. Only two things in life is for certain is death and taxes. 

 

 

[dufus]

5 hours ago, steven36 said:

death and taxes

that about jist of it

[luisam]

Even if I'm rather unknown, compared to widely respected Chris Hadfield, I always sustained that under current and near future's previsible technology the human exploration of Mars has no meaning, unless we are talking about disposable astronauts. To get humans to Mars and bring back them alive and unharmed has a very low probability. Leaving them in Mars, trying to survive there for the rest of their life looks just as impossible and meanless, even giving them a 10TB hard drive full of music...

The real and viable option is to use robotic AI devices which might do the travel and even might come back, not risking the valuable human life of well trained scientists and astronauts. The final result might be about the same.

[knowledge-Spammer]

Russia is 6 decades ahead of entire world combined when it comes to space technology.

1st ICBM - USSR
1st Artificial satellite USSR
1st Signals from space - USSR
1st animals in space - USSR
1st reach of escape velocity - USSR
1st detection of solar wind - USSR
1st artificial satellite of Moon - USSR
1st Moon probe - USSR
1st extraterrestrial rover - USSR
1st Moon rover - USSR
1st heliocentric satellite - USSR
1st safe return of animal from space - USSR
1st MAN IN SPACE - USSR
1st crewed spaceflight - USSR
1st WOMAN IN SPACE - USSR
1st SPACEWALK - USSR
1st spacestation - USSR
1st artificial satellite of Venus

More facts for ya:
Total number of launches Russia 3204, US 1597, rest of the world 623
Total tonnage launched: Russia 987408t (!), US 589441t, rest of the world 200687t
Percentage of failures: Russia 5%, US 8,3%, rest of the world 6,4%
Dead spacemen: Russia 5, US 22

Even more facts
Space launches 1981-1991 USSR 1003, US 192
Manhours of work in space in space 1981-1991 USSR 149424, US 35160

Now about probes and telescopes:
1) Relikt-1
2) Prognoz-9
3) RadioAstron
4) Kvant-1
5) Granat-1
6) Gamma-400
7) Gamma-1
Disk-1
9) Pulsar X-2
10) Astron
11) Koronas-Foton
12) Koronas-F
13) Koronas-I
14) Integral
15) Filin
Others:
16) Sputnik 2, first animal and lab in space, discovery of radiation belt
17) Sputnik-3
18) Luna-1 first to reach escape velocity, first to register external radiation belt, first to detect solar wind, first
artificial comet, first artificial satellite of Sun.
19) Luna-2 first to reach surface of the Moon, first pennant of human nation on extraterrestrial body, first direct

instrumental study of the Moon
20) Luna-3 first gravitational manuver, first pictures of the Moon from space, first pictures of the dark side of the Moon,
21) Sputnik-5, first to return living animals from space to Earth.
22) Venera-1 first to fly by Venus, first mission to other planet.
23) Vostok-1 First spaceship, first man in space, first man to return from space, first orbital manuver of manned spaceship.
24) Vostok-2 first study of weightlessness, firt study of sleep in space, fist over 24h spaceflight.
25) Vostok-3 first manned group flight, first video broadcasting from spaceship in orbit, first live TV broadcasting from

orbit
25) Vostok-4 first communication between spaceships (Vostok-3), first ever simultaneous flight of multiple manned

spaceships, first interception manuvers in orbit, first ever visual contact of spasceships in orbit
26) Mars-1 first ever artificial object to be sent to Mars, first artificial body to enter meteor streams
27) Kosmos-14 first gyroscopic orientation system
28) Vostok-5 the longest single man spaceflight.
29) Vostok-6 first woman in space, first female spacesuit in action, first orbital talks between man and woman
30) Polyot-1 first satellite killer
31) Voskhod-1 first spaceship with crew of 3, first spaceflight without spacesuits.
32) Kosmos-26 and Kosmos-49 first ever dedicated and global study of magnitosphere from space.
33) Zond-2 first plasma engines in space
34) Kosmos-54 first RITEG in space
35) Voskhod-2 first spacewalk
36) Molniya first ever nationwide TV broadcasting system (Orbita, broadcasted Kennedy funnersals live in USSR)
37) Erkan first ever DBSTV system
38) Zond-3 first celestial navigation in space, first HQ pictures of Moon`s dark side
39) Venera-3 first man made object to reach the surface of another planet
40) Luna-9 first soft landing on the Moon, first pictures from Moon surface, first panoramic pictures of Moon landscape,

first communication from Moon, first direct instrumental study of Moon surface
41) Luna-10 first satellite of the Moon
42) Luna-12 discovery X-ray emission from Moon surface
43) Luna-13 first ever drilling of the Moon
44) Kosmos-142 confirmed possibility of L-band communication through ionosphere
45) Kosmos-145 confirmed functionality of quantium frequency standards in space
46) Kosmos-192 started first ever satellite NavComm system (Cyclone)
47) Venera-4 first ever direct study of athmosphere of Venus
48) Kosmos-186/188 first ever automatic docking in space, first ever automatic undocking in space
49) Zond-6 first ever HQ color pictures of Moon and Earth from Moon`s orbit
50) Sfera first ever global network of geodesic satellites (18 units)
51) Soyuz 4 and 5 first ever docking/undocking of manned spaceships, first experimental space station.
52) Luna-16 first and only samples of Moon delivered to Earth.
53) Soyuz-6, 7 and 8 first triple spacehip flight, first wielding in space, first wielding in open space
54) Kosmos-321 first measurement of equatorial electric stream
55) Venera-7 first soft landing on Venus, first comm transmission from Venus surface, first measurement of temp and pressure

at Venus`s surface
56) Lunokhod-1 first ever extraterrestrial rover, first rover on the Moon
57) Salut-1 first space station, first long term space station
58) Soyuz-10 first docking to a space station
59) Mars-2 first man made object to reach Mars surface, first heavy vehicle sent to Mars,
60) Mars-3 first soft landing on Mars, first comm from Mars surface
61) Kosmos-428 X-ray observatory
62) Kosmos-208 orbital gamma telescope
63) Kosmos-251 another orbital gamma telescope, discovery of gamma flashes in radiogalaxy 3C120
64) Kosmos-264 more orbital gamma telescopes
65) Kosmos-461 orbital gamma telescope and meteor stream observatory
66) Interkosmos-1 Solar observatory, discovered polarisation of X-ray radiation from Sun flashes
67) Interkosmos-4 Solar observatory
68) Interkosmos-7 Solar observatory
69) Interkosmos-11 Solar observatory
70) Interkosmos-16 Solar observatory
71) Interkosmos-3 Solar observatory
72) Interkosmos-5 Solar observatory
73) Interkosmos-10 Solar observatory
74) Interkosmos-12 Solar observatory
75) Interkosmos-13 Solar observatory
76) Interkosmos-14 Solar observatory
77) Interkosmos-Kopernik-500 Solar observatory
78) Interkosmos-8 Solar observatory
79) Interkosmos-2 Solar observatory
80) Interkosmos-6 Solar observatory
81) Interkosmos-15 Solar observatory
82) Luna-20 delivered more of Moon samples
83) Venera-8 yet another soft landing on Venus, first ever specral analysis of Venus surface materials
84) Kosmos-521 first armoured satellite, first dedicated satellite-target
85) Lunokhod-2 another Moon rover, moved over 42km, first automobile sold on the Moon
86) Kosmos-573 first transport spaceship
87) Mars-5 another Mars orbital observatory
88) Mars-6 first atmospheric probe
89) Soyuz-13 (Orion-2) manned orbital UV telescope
90) Космос-656 tests of superconductivity and high power magnetic fields aside of main mission
91) Luna-22 lunar orbital probe to study gravity and geology of the Moon
92) Salut-3 first orbital battlestation (armed with 23mm autocannon)
93) Salut-4 had two X-ray telescopes, Filin and RT-4, had 1 optic spectre telescope OST-1, plus IR telescope ITS-P four

telescopes total
94) Soyuz 17 first repairs of telescope in space
95) Aryabhata first Indian space telescope and first Indian satellite
96) Venera-9 first tandem flight to Venus, first pictures from surface of Venus, first artificial satellites of Venus.

Possible detection of extraterrestrial lifeform
97) Venera-10 first tandem flight to Venus, first pictures from surface of Venus, first artificial satellites of Venus
98) Soyuz-19 first international spaceship docking (Apollo)
99) Soyuz-20 first automatic resupply of spacestation.?
100) Salut-5 second space battlestation, this time with SS missiles (space-space)
101) Luna-24 another Moon probe, discovery of water on the Moon, drilling and delivery of 160cm core sample to Earth
102) Soyuz-22 first use of space multispectral camera
103) Kosmos-843 satellite killer
104) Kosmos 856 gamma and X-ray telescope
105) Kosmos-886 satellite killer
106) Kosmos-914 gamma and X-ray telescope
107) Salut-6 first space station with two docking ports, laboratory and first ever space radiotelescope (KRT-
108) Soyuz-26 first ever exchange of crews between spaceships in orbit (Soyuz-27)
109) Soyuz-27 first ever dual docking to space station by manned spaceships
110) Soyuz-28 first international spaceship crew
111) Soyuz-30 second international spaceship crew
112) v-31 third internationa spaceship crew
113) Venera-11 gamma telescope
114) Venera-12 gamma telescope, surveyed C/1979Y1 comet with UV spectrometer
115) Soyuz-33 fourtth international spaceship crew
116) Soyuz-34 first spaceship to be sent empty as replacement for faulty spaceship (Soyuz-32)
117) Soyuz-36 fifth international spaceship crew
118) Soyuz-37 sixth international spaceship crew
119) Soyuz-38 seventh international spaceship crew
120) Soyuz-39 eighth international spaceship crew
121) Soyuz-40 nineth international spaceship crew
122) Venera-13 set of 14 internationaly made scientific instruments, lander delivered color panoramic pictures of Venus, first ever chemical probe of Venus surface, first ever recorded sounds of Venus
123) Venera-14 same as Venera-13 plus first ever drilling of Venus
124) Salut-7 first to have Orlan spacesuits in inventory, best spacesuits ever known to date, deployed first ever microsatellites, had two X-ray and gamma telescopes, 1 electron telescope
125) Kosmos-1383 started Cospas-Sarsat system, first and only international orbital search and rescue system
126) Venera-15 first radar to scan Venus, first detailed mapping of Venus
127) Venera-16 same as Venera-15
128) Kosmos-1413 start of GLONASS system
129) Kosmos-1543 Earth magnetosphere probe first to discover primary particles with energy over ^10-12eV
130) Kosmos-1713 same as 1543
131) Soyuz T-11 first Indian spacemen
132) Vega-1 set of 21 international scientific instruments, first ever aerostatic probe of Venus athmosphere, second drilling of Venus surface, first ever live TV feed from Venus, first ever pictures of Halley`s comet core and detection of organics there
133) Vega-2 same as Vega-1
134) Soyuz T-13 first ever mission to save and repair abandoned spacestation
135) Mir an epic wonder of human genius
136) Kvant scientific module of Mir space station, included astronomic and astrophysical laboratories
137) Kvant-2 another huge 20 tonne scientific module for Mir space station
138) Kristall huge 20 tonne orbital factory module for Mir
139) Spektr huge 19 tonne scientific module for Mir optimised for orbital study of Earth
140) Priroda huge 19 orbital medical lab
141) Foton-1 orbital manufacturing satellite
142) Foton-2 orbital manufacturing satellite
143) Foton-3 orbital manufacturing satellite
144) Foton-4 orbital manufacturing satellite
145) Foton-5 orbital manufacturing satellite
146) Foton-6 orbital manufacturing satellite
147) Foton-7 orbital manufacturing satellite
148) Foton-8 orbital manufacturing satellite
149) Foton-9 orbital manufacturing satellite
150) Foton-10 orbital manufacturing satellite
151) Foton-11 orbital manufacturing satellite
152) Foton-12 orbital manufacturing satellite
153) Foton-M2 orbital manufacturing satellite
154) Foton-M3 orbital manufacturing satellite
155) Foton-M4 orbital manufacturing satellite
156) Kosmos-1818 6,6kW orbital nuclear reactor prototype
157) Skif first automatic 80 tonne battlestation with 100kW laser weapon (was not launched for political reasons)
158) Kosmos-1867 a 6,6kW orbital reactor with prototype 650 watt plasma engine SPD (now Russia has 30kW+ plasma engines)
159) Soyuz TM-4 delivered Glazar telescope for Kvant-1 module
160) Fobos-1 probe to Phobos, had radar, telescope and other scientific instrumentation
161) Fobos-2 same as Fobos-1
162) Soyuz TM-11 first space tourist
163) Series of Bion satellites, animal space labs
164) Soyuz TM-17 first collision with spacestation
165) Mir-2 (ISS) another epic wonder of human mind
166) MRM Rassvet research module for ISS
167) MRM Poisk research module for ISS
168) MLM Nauka huge 24 tonne spacelab, postponed, perhaps will be used with new Russian space station, not ISS
169) Soyuz-2 first escape pod for spacestation
170) Mars-express joint Roskosmos-ESA project, was launched by Russia, has Russian scietific instruments onboard
171) Venus-express Mars-express joint Roskosmos-ESA project, was launched by Russia, has Russian scietific instruments onboard
172) COROT French-ESA telescope launched by Russia
173) Buran - first automatic spaceflight of the orbiter, and first automatic landing.

This is just small list of space exploration advances made by Russia done after brief research. This is just tip of the
iceberg.

I will not even bother myself in going through your list to show Russian part in those missions.

Sorry, genius. But while not diminishing advances of other nations, Russia is so ahead in space exploration versus REST OF THE WORLD, that even if it will stop its space programm completely, rest of the world will need to spend another 60 years just to catch up

[JimmySvert]

Damn!!! And i was about to buy a ticket!!!

[dhjohns]

I have seen an impressive amount of car travel, but that makes me no expert.  Just because someone has had a few rides does not make him an expert.

[tao]

On 6/20/2018 at 6:42 PM, steven36 said:

Humans think they know everything but they don't even know what's going to happen 5 minutes from now ..

“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” – Leo Tolstoy   

[tao]

2 hours ago, dhjohns said:

Just because someone has had a few rides does not make him an expert.

Yup.  But, he's a bit more knowledgeable than the one who has never been inside of a traveling car, eh.   ?

[luisam]

To rescue origina topic, I want ot call to the attention of those interested, on Wikipedia's webpage about HUMAN MISSION TO MARS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars

After you've read it probably you'll ask yourself how come that some serious scientists could talk  about a manned Mars mission in the second half of 20th century and even dating it before 2020.

One of the "funniest" projects is that of a so called "space activist" Bruce Mackenzie, proposing to expend a  one way ticket, leaving astronauts on Mars. Yes, asshole, why don't you go and stay there yourself!

After you've read the complete text, probably your conclusion will be that currently we are not near at all to a manned mission.

My forecast is that If somehow a forced mission is launched before some currently not developed space-travel technolgy is implemented, it will end in a complete disaster.

 

[dhjohns]

8 minutes ago, tao said:

Yup.  But, he's a bit more knowledgeable than the one who has never been inside of a traveling car, eh.   ?

Perhaps a bit, but I doubt he is a rocket scientist.  He just knows how to drive them.

[knowledge-Spammer]

manned mission  to mars u will die for sure?

i think this is the video he talk about with putin

 

[knowledge-Spammer]

maybe u have seen this i bet not  Genius’ Russian Boy Says He Used to Live on MARS & Martians are STILL There

google Boriska: Indigo Boy from Mars