It might sound like Hollywood science fiction, but Nasa is considering a new one-way mission in which astronauts will be sent to another world such as Mars to settle there for ever.
The US space agency has confirmed that it is carrying out feasibility studies to asses whether astronauts could be sent permanently to the red planet, or its moons, to establish human colonies under the ambitious project called the “Hundred Years Starship”.
The astronauts would be sent supplies from earth on a regular basis but they would have to become self-sufficient as soon as possible. The astronauts would have to embark on the mission knowing that they would never return to earth as the cost of returning would make the project prohibitively expensive.
Speaking at a conference in San Francisco, Pete Worden, director of Nasa’s Ames Research Centre, recently said his division has received funding to start work on the project. “The human space programme is now really aimed at settling other worlds. Twenty years ago, you had to whisper that in dark bars and get fired,” he was quoted as saying by MSNBC.
“You heard it here. We also hope to inveigle some billionaires to form a ‘Hundred Year Starship’ fund.” Mr Worden said he had discussed the potential price tag for one-way trips to Mars with Google co-founder Larry Page, telling him such a mission could be done for $10 billion.
“His (Page’s) response was: ‘Can you get it down to $1-2 billion?’ So now we’re starting to get a little argument over the price,” he said. Nasa’s Phoenix was the most recent unmanned mission to Mars: launched in August 2007, it landed on the planet’s north polar cap in May 2008. —PTI