1228-CommandersReport

Commander Report

12/28/2014

Nick Orenstein

Commander’s Log

Mars Date 1461228.00

It appears as difficult to travel successfully to simulated Mars as

to travel to actual Mars. Originally a collection of seven

international officers, Crew 146 arrived yesterday at the Mars Desert

Research Station in two spacecraft as a team of four. All carried

stories of travel adventures, delays, and confusions along with their

cargo.

The dwindling of our ranks began several months ago. We suffered our

first loss when the financial burden of a trip to Mars would not be

covered by a sponsor. It continued several weeks ago when one of our

two members realized that her visa approval would not be completed

before our launch date. Sickness overcame a third participant; he is

still recovering from the flu.

These three circumstances highlight three of the most important

factors that currently plague the sincere creation of a serious

mission to Mars: economics, international cooperation, and human

physiology.

The worldwide science and engineering community has the technical

knowledge to identify and solve all of the outstanding gaps in space

travel. These include environmental control and life support systems,

radiation protection, space habitats, and launch vehicles. But R&D

cannot be funded by measly angel investors and non-profit grants. It

will take billions of dollars. This money, of course, is still spent

on Earth. Sadly, current funding priorities are elsewhere. As a

result, talented people and their work are left out.

The various space agencies don’t always play well with each other.

Apollo was a geopolitical arms race. The International Space Station

(ISS) nobly hosts visitors and science from across Earth. Except for

China. Terrestrial travel now requires visas to cross borders which

most astronauts will tell you don’t truly exist when you look back

down on our Blue Marble. International cooperation is much more than

simple cost sharing. It is a progressive admission to ourselves that

we are all Earthlings, and we are all in it together.

A large percentage of space research at the ISS is on the effect of

the space environment on the human body. Dangers abound, but none so

large that human ingenuity cannot out-design. Martian habitats must

shield from radiation. Astronauts will need to cope with months of

transit in microgravity and a long duration surface mission at 1/3 g.

The flu and other common colds can be avoidable, but only if we

properly quarantine explorers and their equipment prior to leaving

Earth.

As humanity looks onwards to Mars, we must first look inwards. We

must reprioritize. The limiting factors cannot be so, or else we will

not succeed.