Doctor of Technical Sciences L. GORSHKOV.

The dream of human flight to the planet Mars has a long history, but only today we have come very close to the possibility of its fulfillment. In many ways, interest in Mars was associated with the expectation of a meeting of brothers in mind. And although it is not necessary to count on the discovery of intelligent beings on Mars, some forms of life can probably be found there. But the significance of a human flight to Mars goes far beyond the search for life outside Earth. It is important that Mars is the only planet that is promising in terms of its colonization. There is an opinion that not a crew should be sent to Mars, but automatic stations that can replace a human explorer (see "Science and Life" No.; No.). Despite this, work on the implementation of the flight is underway, and an experiment on flight simulation is beginning at the Institute of Biomedical Problems. Leonid Alekseevich Gorshkov, chief researcher of RSC Energia, doctor of technical sciences, professor, laureate of the State Prize, full member of the Academy of Cosmonautics, tells about the project of the forthcoming Martian expedition. One of the leaders of work on the Martian program at RSC Energia. He was directly involved in the design and development of the Soyuz spacecraft, the Salyut and Mir stations and the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). In 1994-1998, L.A. Gorshkov was the Deputy Director of the International Space Station Program on the Russian side.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Scheme of the Martian expedition.

This is how an electric rocket engine works.

The design of the first service module of the International Space Station "Zvezda" served as the basis for the interplanetary expeditionary complex.

The internal structure of the habitation module of the interplanetary orbital ship.

Interaction of elements of the solar tug module.

Truss structures form the basis of the propulsion system of the interplanetary expeditionary complex.

General view of the interplanetary expeditionary complex. Openwork trusses are equipped with panels of solar photoconverters and two packages of electric propulsion engines.

Scheme of the operation of the take-off and landing complex, which ensures the delivery of cosmonauts-researchers to the surface of Mars and their return to the orbital ship.

What does a human flight to Mars look like?

The flight from Earth orbit to Mars orbit will take 2-2.5 years. The ship, in which the crew must live and work all this time, has a mass of 500 tons, and it needs hundreds of tons of fuel. It is the scale of the task that distinguishes the flight of a man to Mars from the flights of relatively small automatic devices. The total mass of the entire manned complex becomes much larger than even the most powerful launch vehicles can put into orbit. Therefore, it makes no sense to create a giant rocket to launch the entire interplanetary complex from the Earth. It's easier to send it into near-Earth orbit in parts, from these parts, and assemble a complex there, using already proven assembly technologies in orbit.

The flight will take place as follows. In a few months, the complex will be assembled, and the interplanetary expedition will fly in a heliocentric orbit to the vicinity of Mars. Since it is impractical to lower the entire interplanetary spacecraft to the surface of Mars, the complex will include a take-off and landing module. After the interplanetary expeditionary complex enters a circular orbit around Mars, the crew or part of it will land on the surface of the planet. After completing work on the surface, the astronauts will return to the spacecraft. The Interplanetary Expeditionary Complex will launch from a near-Martian orbit to the Earth and will enter the orbit from which it launched to Mars. On the return ship, the crew will descend to Earth.

Thus, the interplanetary expeditionary complex consists of four main functional parts: the ship, in which the crew works and all the main equipment is located; an interplanetary tug providing flight along an interplanetary trajectory; take-off and landing complex and the spacecraft return to Earth.

The main problem of organizing a manned flight to Mars is to ensure a high probability of a safe return of the crew. The level of crew safety must comply with Russian standards, that is, a Martian expedition should not be more dangerous than, for example, a flight to an orbital station. It is extremely difficult to fulfill this requirement.

One of the fundamental technical decisions on the interplanetary complex was the choice of a tug, in essence - a large rocket with multiple engines.

Today, the Soyuz carrier rocket remains the most reliable rocket that takes a man into space, which has worked perfectly throughout the long history of manned flights. But even she, albeit rarely, refuses. In this case, an emergency rescue system is provided, when, in the event of a failure of the launch vehicle, powder engines take the descent vehicle with the crew away from the rocket and the astronauts land on the Earth's surface. This rescue system has already had to be used in the operation of orbital stations.

The Soyuz rocket will be assembled on Earth and tested with the participation of many specialists, including quality control teams, and the interplanetary rocket will be assembled and tested in orbit. And it should have a much higher reliability than the Soyuz, since it is impossible to create an emergency crew rescue system in the event of a failure in the process of its entry into a heliocentric orbit. Therefore, to ensure the necessary safety of the crew, fundamentally new technical solutions are needed when choosing an interplanetary tug.

Work on the concept of a manned flight to Mars has been underway since 1960 (see "Science and Life" No. 6, 1994). The first domestic project of a ship for landing a man on the surface of Mars was carried out in OKB-1, headed by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Now it is the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation named after S.P. Korolev. In the 1960 project, a fundamentally new technical solution was adopted: to use electric rocket engines for an interplanetary expedition (see "Science and Life" No. ). This decision of RSC Energia remained unchanged for all subsequent modifications of the project for a manned flight to Mars, and it was this decision that made it possible to largely solve the safety problem.

The principle of operation of electric rocket engines is that the jet that provides thrust is created not due to thermal expansion of the gas, as in liquid rocket engines (LRE), but by accelerating the ionized gas in the electromagnetic field created by the onboard power plant. The fuel, or rather, the "working fluid" will be xenon gas.

As a power plant that feeds electric rocket engines, in 1960 they were going to use a nuclear reactor with a capacity of 7 MW. Separate parts of the ship were supposed to be delivered into orbit by a heavy launch vehicle (at that time, work on the N-1 rocket had just begun). The crew was planned from six people. After landing on the surface of Mars, the equipment would be assembled in the form of a "train" that was supposed to cross the planet from one of its poles to another.

In 1969, this project was redesigned. The reactor power has been increased to 15 MW. To improve the reliability of the propulsion system, three were planned instead of one reactor. During the revision of the project, the "appetites" had to be moderated: the number of landers was reduced from five to one, the crew members became four. It was decided to use a modification of the new heavy rocket H-1 as a launch vehicle (see "Science and Life" Nos. 4, 5, 1994).

In 1988, due to great progress in the creation of film photoconverters and success in the development of transformable truss structures, the nuclear reactor was replaced by solar panels. One of the motives for this decision was the desire to make the interplanetary expeditionary complex environmentally friendly. The main advantage of this solution was the possibility of multiple duplication of the propulsion system. To deliver the ship's parts to the Earth's orbit, it was supposed to use the new Energia launch vehicle.

Elements of the expeditionary complex and the state of their development

The first element of the international complex is the ship in which the crew works. It's called an interplanetary orbiter. Orbital - because its main function is associated with work in the orbits of an interplanetary flight. The creation of this ship in a relatively short time is quite realistic. In terms of its tasks, it is, in essence, an analogue of the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station, only slightly larger in size. The fact is that the required equipment can be delivered to the space station on the Progress spacecraft in two or three months, while the Martian expedition will not have such an opportunity for two or two and a half years. Therefore, everything that may be needed during the entire flight, including in the event of emergency situations, must be taken with you and placed on the ship.

The main systems of the interplanetary spacecraft have already been tested at the Salyut and Mir orbital stations. Therefore, for its construction, it is planned to use ready-made documentation for many structural elements, and most importantly, factory equipment and technologies available at the plant - the manufacturer of the Zvezda module body (plant of the Khrunichev Center).

The second element of the interplanetary expeditionary complex is a solar tug, providing flight along an interplanetary trajectory. It consists of two packages of electric rocket engines with control systems, tanks with a working fluid and large panels with film solar photoconverters that supply energy to the engines.

The solar tug also includes many already developed units, structures and systems. Electric rocket engines are widely used in space technology, and for a flight to Mars, only a few improvements in their characteristics are required. Film solar photoconverters are manufactured in Russia for ground needs. And to test the stability in outer space, their samples were placed on the outer surface of the Mir station. Transformable structures, on which photoconverters should be placed, were also tested during flights of orbital stations. The solar tug is supposed to be based on the design of the Sophora truss installed at the Mir station. So that the joints did not have backlashes, the so-called "shape memory effect" was used, that is, the ability of some materials, after heating, to take the shape and dimensions that the corresponding parts had before the specially carried out deformation.

The third element of the interplanetary complex is the takeoff and landing complex, in which part of the crew lands on the surface of Mars and returns back to the ship. The runway complex, unlike the previous elements, is a completely new development. There were no analogues of it in Russian programs yet. However, similar tasks in the Russian cosmonautics were solved, and there are no serious problems in its creation.

And finally the fourth element of the complex - return ship to earth. It has a real prototype - the Zond spacecraft, which was developed in the USSR for a man to fly around the Moon with an entrance to the dense layers of the atmosphere at the second cosmic velocity. "Zond-4" - "Zond-7" made flights in 1968-1969 with animals in the cockpit. True, human flights in these ships were subsequently abandoned.

What is the peculiarity of the RSC Energia project? Why does it seem so real? First of all, because of the choice of the propulsion system for interplanetary flight. Electric rocket engines have a relatively low thrust, but a high jet velocity, which significantly reduces the required fuel reserves for interplanetary flights. But the most important thing is that, unlike all other engines, they allow for multiple redundancy. What is meant?

For an interplanetary complex with an initial mass of about 1000 tons, about 400 electric rocket engines with a thrust of about 80 gauss (0.8 N) each are needed. All these engines or groups of engines operate independently of each other, each group has its own section of tanks with the working fluid, its own control system, its own section of solar panels. And the failure of even several groups of engines will not affect the interplanetary flight. Such a propulsion system is practically not subject to failures. This is something like the flock of geese that took Baron Munchausen to the moon: any goose along the way had the right to get tired and leave the race without harm to the entire flight.

The total thrust of all engines is 32 kgf, or 320 N. In outer space, a ship weighing about 1000 tons under the action of this force acquires an acceleration of 32x10 -5 m/s 2 . This meager acceleration is enough to gain the speed necessary for interplanetary flight during long-term operation of the engines. The time of the ship's movement along a spiral trajectory around the Earth is about three months. In this part of the trajectory, the engines do not work continuously, they are turned off when the Earth obscures the Sun. After the spacecraft enters the heliocentric orbit, the operation of the engines will continue.

Russia has already come a long way towards organizing the first manned flight to Mars. Many elements of the future interplanetary complex have been tested at the Salyut and Mir orbital stations, and a lot of work has been done to develop systems and technologies for ensuring long-term manned space flights. No other country has accumulated such experience.

At present, the Institute of Biomedical Problems is preparing an experiment "500 days" to study the medical aspects of a future human flight to Mars. As a basis for the layout of the Martian complex, a structure created in the 1960s on the initiative of S.P. Korolev is used, on which research has already been carried out under the program for testing interplanetary flights.

The name of the experiment is due to the fact that although the time of a man's flight to Mars is 700-900 days, depending on the year of the expedition, the first experimental "flight" on Earth will last 500 days. The first crew of the ground "flight" will be six people, and it will be international, from representatives of different countries.

It seems that the Americans have not yet finally decided on the concept of a manned flight to Mars. But, judging by the publications, reports at international conferences, they tend to use nuclear engines. Russian specialists do not share this approach for many reasons. Firstly, tests of such engines on Earth are associated with the outflow of a powerful radioactive jet. Despite the fact that there are technical ways to protect the earth's atmosphere from it, test benches for testing such engines still pose a certain danger to the surrounding area. But the most important thing is that for nuclear engines the level of reliability that can be achieved using multiply redundant electric rocket engines is unattainable. In addition, the use of environmentally friendly engines for interplanetary flight makes it possible to make an interplanetary spacecraft reusable. Reusability is very attractive when it comes not to a single flight, but to the Mars exploration program.

The stage of landing on the surface of Mars is the most critical in terms of ensuring the safety of the crew. Unlike a solar tug and an interplanetary orbiter, the take-off and landing complex has much less ability to use redundant sets of equipment: the processes are fast, and it is not always possible to connect backup equipment. Therefore, the main factor in ensuring the necessary reliability of the take-off and landing complex is its careful testing, including in unmanned mode in real Martian conditions. No one will dare to send a man to Mars before the take-off and landing complex does not land and take off from the planet in automatic mode. Therefore, the first manned flights to Mars will be without a crew landing on its surface.

During the first flights to Mars, the crew will remain in near-Martian orbit, only a remote-controlled automatic vehicle will descend to the surface. Particular attention should be paid to this stage of human exploration of Mars. Essentially, the astronaut's eyes and hands "go down" to the surface. This flight combines the safety of the crew and the full use of the experience and intuition of a planetary scientist who will conduct research from an interplanetary orbiter. It turns out a complete virtual presence of a person on the real surface of Mars. It is impossible to do this from the Earth because of the large distance and the delay of the signal by several tens of minutes.

It is difficult to make a difference in terms of work efficiency whether a person is present on the surface physically or virtually. Unless there is a trace of the sole of the astronaut's boots on the ground. During a virtual landing on Mars, the cosmonaut observes not through the porthole of the suit, but through very advanced video equipment. He does not work with his hands in spacesuit gloves, but with the help of finer tools. Considering that one of the goals of expeditions to Mars is preparation for its colonization, a flight with a virtual landing of the crew will be only the first stage in this process.

Thus, the Russian project of manned flight to Mars has very important features. Firstly, the technical solutions included in the project and the presence of a large backlog make a flight to Mars the cheapest of all known expedition options; secondly, the safety of the crew in this flight is very high.

Why fly to Mars?

And here the question is appropriate: is a manned flight to Mars necessary at all? On the one hand, it would seem that everything is clear: a manned flight to Mars is expensive. It does not promise any more or less noticeable benefits for earthlings. And on the Earth itself there are many problems that require funds to solve. Even simply providing the earth's population with food seems to be a higher priority than a manned flight to Mars.

But, fortunately, although the life of the population of the Earth at all times has not been prosperous, humanity has never been guided by the principle of "momentary benefit" that is obvious at first glance. That is why today we do not sit in animal skins by the fire near the cave. The study of the surroundings of one's own "home", from the World Ocean to outer space, has always been and remains one of the elements in the development of civilization.

But is there any pragmatic motivation for going to Mars? The first obvious task of the expedition is to study our neighboring planet. Exploration of Mars will help to a large extent predict the development of the Earth, advance in understanding the problem of the origin of life, and much more. They are on a par with the study of stars, galaxies, the Universe surrounding us, penetration into the essence of matter, the study of the structure of the microworld, the structure of the atomic nucleus ... All this does not promise immediate benefits in the near future.

We all live on the same planet, and it is subject to various global dangers that can destroy all of humanity. For example, a collision with an asteroid of a sufficiently large mass will certainly mean the end of the history of Homo sapiens. Yes, and the earthlings themselves are a danger to themselves. "Eggs should not lie in one basket", and the organization of settlements on other planets of the solar system, and primarily on Mars, is a way out of this situation. Despite the fact that the probability of a global catastrophe is small, the price that humanity can pay for carelessness is the highest that can be imagined. The process of planetary exploration is long, but it is unreasonable to postpone its beginning, given this price. It seems to be quite a pragmatic goal. Nevertheless, many consider the probability of a global catastrophe to be too low to recognize the planetary exploration program as fully justified for the development of work on a manned flight to Mars. But it should be borne in mind that the totality of the interests of the members of society never corresponds to the interests of society as a whole.

An important issue is the motivation for work on the Martian program in Russia. Are there any practical tasks that Russia will solve by taking on the organization of a manned flight to Mars? It turns out there is.

Despite the fact that the dynamics of the development of the Russian economy is positive, it has a very vulnerable spot - a resource orientation (production and export of hydrocarbons, metallurgy, etc.), which the President of the Russian Federation has repeatedly drawn attention to. It has not yet been possible to restore Russia's industry after the crisis of the 1990s. And what industry should be restored first of all? Probably the one that uses advanced technologies that are in demand on the world market. And aerospace technology is one of them. For many of them, our country has an unconditional priority.

The recovery of the industry also has a social aspect. Thousands of enterprises operating in various regions and cities of the country, for example, participated in the creation of the Salyut and Mir orbital stations, the Russian segment of the International Space Station. To create space technology, not only purely "space" production is needed. Various devices and units, materials and much more are needed. And these are all jobs for specialists using advanced technologies, which is always very important for any country.

We have become accustomed to the concept of "brain drain". Brain drain is going on, but it seems that nothing terrible is happening. In reality, it just seems that way. The process when the most valuable personnel leave Russia is dangerous for the country, threatening its very existence. Scientists leave the country not because they get more money abroad, but primarily because there are no programs in our country in which they would find application. Russia needs major scientific programs like air. In particular, scientists of various specialties - biologists, physicians, materials scientists, physicists, programmers, chemists and many, many others - will be in demand in the program of a manned flight to Mars.

One can treat the concept of the country's prestige differently. But the authority of the state is also an economic concept. Let us recall how the authority of the United States grew after the Apollo program. The flight of a man to Mars, no matter what skeptics say about it, has always excited and will excite humanity. Realization of this dream of many generations is extremely prestigious. So the project of manned flight to Mars is of particular importance for Russia.

Now about the situation with international cooperation in organizing a manned flight to Mars. You can often hear that this flight is possible only in broad international cooperation. Indeed, the exploration of Mars is a lengthy process, and at certain stages almost all countries with appropriate technologies will participate in it. The program of flights to Mars will require a variety of ships, bases, research and construction facilities. National programs of various countries will solve individual problems of Mars exploration. And each country will pass its own part of the way to this program.

As long as there are different states, the existence of national programs is inevitable. Each country is interested in developing its advanced technologies based on its own experience and developments. Especially if these technologies are in demand on the world market. Therefore, both international and national programs will always coexist in astronautics.

Today, in the United States, a manned mission to Mars has been declared a national program. The Americans, in principle, can invite other countries to participate in it, but at their own expense. But your own funds should be spent with maximum benefit for yourself. It is hardly expedient to make some elements of the American program for your own money. It is more profitable to develop key technologies for a manned flight to Mars, which will allow the development of national programs in the future. For example, reusable solar tugs, which have become one of the elements of the Russian concept of a flight to Mars, will make it possible to solve many other problems facing humanity. The fact is that in the future, efficient space tugs will largely determine space strategy, just like launch vehicles once did. In other words, Russia should have its own development program, and not serve the interests of others. This in no way interferes with cooperation. The systems built in Russia will be important to enable wider capabilities, including US flights. And there will certainly be cooperation with various countries to create individual elements of expeditions.

Cooperation with the United States in the first manned flight to Mars also has purely technical aspects. We respect the qualifications of American engineers. But the concept adopted by the Americans may not suit us. A number of American programs are known that are technically unacceptable for Russian specialists, including from the point of view of ensuring the safety of the crew.

Let us suppose that the Americans want to carry out some grandiose Martian nuclear project like Freedom and, although this is unlikely, will offer Russia to participate in this project on a parity basis. Well, what should we do? Participate? Or to develop a project based on Russian technologies for practically the same money, cheaper, less ambitious and, as we expect, more effective. It seems that the second way is natural: the intellectual potential and experience in the development of manned programs, especially those associated with long-term human flights, among Russian specialists, in any case, is no less than that of the Americans.

Working on a Martian expedition in the US and Russia will not be some kind of "Martian race". Each of the countries will develop its own key technologies that will allow the development of its national advanced industry and science. For example, in order to organize a very effective manned flight to the orbit of Mars with a virtual landing of the crew on the Martian surface, Russia already has a huge technical and technological reserve. And it is very important to use it in a major scientific and technical program.

Thus, Russia has everything to carry out a manned flight to Mars: the necessary intellectual potential, unique experience in manned programs, workable industrial cooperation, and the need to invest in high-tech industry with advanced technologies. There is every reason to believe that in the coming decades, the long-standing dream of earthlings about a manned flight to Mars will finally come true!

Mars One is a Dutch project of an irrevocable expedition to Mars. As planned by the organizers, in 2023 a group of four volunteers will go to the red planet and stay there forever, earthlings will watch the life of the colonialists in the format of a reality show. It was immediately stated that life conditions are completely different on Earth and the Red Planet, and those who have been to Mars will no longer be able to exist here. The return of the crew is an impossible task. Some scientists have already said they consider the upcoming expedition a mass suicide.

Photo: www.mars-one.com

Nevertheless, 200,000 people from all over the world applied to participate in the expedition. 52 Russians made it to the second round. AiF.ru spoke with applicants for participation in the mission about why they are going to leave the Earth forever.

Photo: www.mars-one.com

Ilya Khramov: "Gagarin flew, and I can"

Tolyatti resident Ilya Khramov passed the first qualifying round for the Mars One project. Of the 200 thousand applicants, only 1058 people were selected. The AvtoVAZ design engineer is not afraid that he may never see the Earth again, and he is sure that in ten years he will become one of the first colonizers of the red planet.

Ilya Khramov. Photo: AIF-Samara / Xenia Zheleznova

25-year-old Ilya Khramov is already recognized by the townspeople. On Kommunisticheskaya Street, he greets a resident of Togliatti and says that he does not know him, but, most likely, the man saw him on TV.

“The media overwhelm me, call me every day. As soon as it became known that 1058 people, including 52 Russians, including me, went to the second round of Mars One, the phone does not stop, ”says Ilya.

In May, Ilya saw information about the recruitment of colonizers to Mars and was one of the first residents of Russia to post his video on the Mars One website. The contestants had to convince the organizers why they should fly to the red planet, prove that they have a sense of humor and then tell about themselves.

Ilya Khramov. Photo from personal archive

A candidate to colonize Mars shows a video they made with a friend. In a hat with earflaps and a vest, Ilya jokes in English that there is no doubt that he is a real Russian, because that is how everyone in Russia dresses.

A frame from the competition video. Photo: Screenshot from the site

“I attached a questionnaire and a motivation letter to the video, in which I made my psychological portrait. I sent everything, looked that more than 200 thousand people were participating, and, frankly, I did not hope to go any further, ”admits Ilya.

Competition video by Ilya Khramov

In early January, the Togliatti citizen no longer doubted his desire to leave planet Earth forever and go to an unknown planet. A letter was sent to the young man's e-mail, which confirmed that he had successfully passed the first qualifying round and should prepare for the next stage - passing the medical commission and a personal interview.

Letter from the organizers of the Mars One project. Photo: AIF-Samara / Xenia Zheleznova

“I saw the letter and I think that’s it, there is no way back. I will do everything in order to pass all the qualifying rounds. I have no doubt that I will successfully pass a medical examination, - says Ilya. - I have already taken a vacation in order to have time to prepare all the documents for the second round. I have perfect eyesight, an athletic build, and besides, I don't drink or smoke. I am also ready for an interview, I am fluent in spoken English.

"Bring a magnet"

Ilya shows a faded photograph of him three years old. A blue-eyed child sits in the arms of his mother. The young man will definitely take this picture with him to Mars. The son immediately informed his mother Lada Yuryevna about his participation in the Mars One project.

“Mom is skeptical about my desire to fly to Mars. She doesn't even take it seriously, she laughs at me. Without much joy, he tells on which channel they showed me again, ”admits Ilya.

Ilya has a photo of his mother in front of him. Photo: AIF-Samara / Xenia Zheleznova

Khramov says that from early childhood he was brought up on fantastic literature. At home, there are books by Kir Bulychev and the Strugatsky brothers on the bookshelf. From the army, the Togliatti citizen brought many works by the science fiction writer Sergei Lukyanenko, whom he constantly rereads.

“I have always been attracted by the future and the unknown in literature, and the opportunity to fly to Mars is a dream come true and a step towards the future. I do not want to become famous through this project, it is more important for me to change my life. Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong weren't afraid to fly, so I'm not afraid either," explains his desire to go into space, a participant in the Mars One project. Khramov is not afraid that he will not return, he is ready for such a fate.

Elijah with friends A photo from personal archive

Friends support Ilya, although they admit that before their friend had not yet passed the first round, they did not believe in his success. Someone tried to dissuade, asked to stay, because they would be bored. Now they write messages to him: “Bring a magnet from Mars” or “You know, I would be a good flight mechanic, take me with you.”

A friend calls a young man, Ilya says that he will call back later and talks about how he will live without people close to him.

“On Mars, it will be possible to communicate with people close to me, so I will not feel lonely there. To do this, two satellites will be launched in 2018, which will communicate between astronauts and the Earth,” says Ilya. “In the event of overpopulation of the Earth, I think that someone close to me will be able to fly to me, I will take their place.”

In case of overpopulation of the Earth, Ilya will wait for his mother on Mars. Photo: AIF-Samara / Xenia Zheleznova

Responsibilities of colonizers

The first four colonizers will have to arrange the space base, maintain equipment and explore the planet.

Mars Photo: www.mars-one.com

“I am fascinated by the research that I could do on Mars. In addition, in the event of a breakdown, I can repair the equipment. For nine years we will be preparing for the flight, so there is no doubt that we will go into space prepared,” says Ilya.

A young man shows a tattoo on his arm, which depicts what he will not be able to take with him to Mars: drums, a guitar, books, a city and cassettes.

Tattoo in memory of life on Earth. Photo: AIF-Samara / Xenia Zheleznova

“I’ll have to leave the snowboard on Earth, but I think that I can come up with something similar there and ride through the Martian dust on the board,” says Ilya.

The next qualifying round will take place on March 8th. Then it will become known whether Ilya will increase his chances of flying to Mars or still remain on Earth, despite dreams of space.

Anastasia Barkhatova: "I will fly away forever - it will be interesting"

Anastasia Barkhatova graduated from Chelyabinsk University with a degree in microbiology. She works as a laboratory assistant at a blood transfusion station, says her duties include testing blood for HIV and hepatitis. I accidentally found out that you can become a participant in the project for resettlement to Mars from a note on the Dutch website.

“I applied immediately,” says Nastya. - It must be in English. I know it and improve it, this is the official language of the expedition, at the next stages the requirements for the level of proficiency in it will be presented. I also had to state my motivation so that the organizers understood what was pushing me to Mars.”

Entered half a percent of the elect

Anastasia's relatives are physicists by education. Barkhatova admits that since childhood she was fond of space, microbiology and science fiction, Ivan Efremov's Andromeda Nebula was her favorite book. I was fond of, but not to the point of fanaticism. Before the project, I didn’t even think about what could go to Mars.

Photo: www.mars-one.com

“I ended up in half a percent of the elect, this is good news,” says Barkhatova frankly. - Almost two hundred thousand people from one hundred and forty countries of the world expressed their desire to take part in a fantastically interesting project, as a result, a little more than a thousand people passed the first stage. I am one of them."
Nastya says she learned about her victory in the first stage on January 1st from an official email. It was the best Christmas present for her.

Nastya was born in Verkhneuralsk. She graduated from ChelGU, practiced at a research institute in Obolensk, got a job at a blood transfusion station, as she had planned in her last year at the university. Neither relatives nor colleagues knew that he was participating in the Mars colonization project. Until the last - until Nastya won the first stage.

So, waving to friends and family, Nastya will fly to Mars. In ten years, if it passes the remaining tests. Photo: AiF

Don't waste your time thinking

“The relatives, in Russian, were stunned,” says Nastya. Colleagues too. A trip to Mars is a one-way ticket. It was immediately stated that life conditions are completely different on Earth and the Red Planet, and those who have been to Mars will no longer be able to exist here. But I do not worry and am not afraid: the project is too significant and global to be exchanged for reflection. Yes, we will not be able to give birth to children and start families - but I agree to sacrifice our usual way of life for the sake of life on Mars. I’ll fly away forever – it’s very interesting.”

As reported on the official website of the project, among those who passed the first stage are people aged 18 to 81 years. The main condition for all applicants is excellent health: one hundred percent vision, blood pressure within normal limits, no chronic diseases, height from 157 to 190 centimeters. Next, the lucky ones are waiting for new tests, until it is disclosed which ones.

Anastasia Barkhatova told AiF readers that she was not at all afraid to move to Mars. Photo: AiF

“I’m really looking forward to the next steps,” says the microbiologist. — I know that if successful, I will have a ten-year preparation for the trip, because the resettlement itself is scheduled for 2025. By 2015, six groups of four people will be formed, and in 2018 the first robots will be sent to Mars.”

Having learned about the victory in the international project of their countrywoman, the Chelyabinsk residents reacted differently. Some people consider the relocation to Mars nothing more than another “duck”, others are sure that everything will be limited to passing the selection, and no one will fly into space, still others, and most of them, are sincerely happy for Anastasia. And even a little jealous of her.

In view of the recent presidential elections in the Russian Federation, attention to Russian leader Vladimir Putin has increased even more. News about the ruler of Russia does not leave the TV screens, and on the Internet, Andrey Kondrashov's new documentary "Putin" breaks records in terms of the number of views. Among the mass of interesting topics that were touched upon in the film, it was also about space. In particular, he spoke about the grandiose intentions of our country to conquer the galaxy. With the help of unmanned and manned vehicles, a deeper study of the Earth's satellite is planned under the "lunar program", and a little later - the study of Mars.

When Putin plans to conquer Mars

“Deep space exploration” will begin next year, Putin announced. The flight to Mars in 2019 will be carried out by unmanned spacecraft, but "manned launches" are also planned in the future. In the near future, Russian scientists are planning to “launch a mission towards Mars,” said Vladimir Putin. According to the head of state, Russia now has every chance to make a big leap in the field of deep space exploration. He explained that now many countries have a fairly high level of technological development, including our country. Therefore, Russia "has a chance to become leaders." At present, there is an excellent base for the next step forward, which should be used as a springboard for a sharp move up. Thus, Vladimir Putin made it clear to all Russian viewers that space exploration is one of the most important strategic tasks in terms of the development of our state.

How the flight will be carried out

The flight to Mars in 2019 will be carried out by an unmanned interplanetary spacecraft, which Elon Musk is working on. The scientist assured that by the beginning of next year the spacecraft will be able to fly to the Red Planet, although it will not be able to stay there for a long time. Recall that in 2016, a similar group of drones failed and failed to successfully dock with the surface of Mars. Then the TGO orbiter and the landing module Schiaparelli participated in it, which crashed at the moment of contact with the planet.

Further, Roskosmos will join the work. In 2020, he plans to launch the second phase of the exploration mission to Mars. It will be called "ExoMars" and will be the result of joint work with the European Space Agency. The mission will consist of two vehicles: a European rover and a landing platform developed by Russian engineers. The aim of the launch will be:

• landing on the surface of Mars landing module;
• climate measurements over a long period of time;
• verification of existing atmospheric models.

If the second mission is successful, Elon Musk plans to create a permanent colony on the Red Planet by 2022. Its goal will be to deliver the necessary cargo for people, the first of which will be able to set foot on the surface of Mars in 2024. While it is difficult to imagine that in six years the first space tourists will land on the Red Planet, however, the rapid development of the technical base makes it possible to think so.

In the meantime, a flight to Mars is only in development, Putin is already talking about the “lunar program” of 2019 in action. Its main task will be to explore the poles of the moon. Russian cosmonauts are planned to land there to test the hypothesis of the presence of water in its depths.

In contrast to the peaceful study of deep space by Russian scientists, US President Donald Trump made a shocking statement. During a visit to an air force base in California, he announced the need to create a national space force. He explained his decision by the fact that “space is also a battlefield”, the same as territories on water, land and in the air. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin immediately reacted to Trump's speech. He commented on the American leader's speech as follows: "The United States is opening Pandora's box." It turns out that for some countries space is a huge field for general scientific work and studies, while for others it is a place for wars and appropriation of territories.

Vladimir Putin on flights to Mars and other planets: video

Mars has long attracted people to itself. The red planet has given rise to a lot of speculation, especially about the presence of life on it. And now, at last, the moment of truth has arrived. The first manned expedition to Mars is scheduled for 2023. Its preparation began in the Netherlands.
A project called Mars One invites everyone to take part in it. True, as the administration of the project warns, there will be no return to Earth.
As the founders of the project explain, today there are no technologies on Earth to ensure the return of astronauts.
According to Bas Lansdorp, one of the leaders of Mars One, in 2023 a rocket with four people on board will go from Earth to Mars.
The day before, in 2016 and 2022, a planetary base and supplies of food, water and air will also fly there.
Upon arrival on Mars, people will engage in scientific experiments, as well as search for traces of the presence of extraterrestrial life.
The future mission is not expected to be easy. Many problems will have to be solved. For example, it is planned to extract oxygen from the water that is under the surface of Mars, but so far no reliable water deposits have been discovered on the planet.
In addition, due to the strong winds on Mars, the landers can be at a considerable distance from each other. Whether the astronauts will be able to reach them on foot is still unknown.
The organizers of the flight plan to finance it through a reality show that will be broadcast on television.
As expected, the public will be interested in watching the journey and life of the first "Marsonauts". However, broadcasting the end of a crew's life in space may be illegal in many countries.
There is another side of the flight. Astronauts who go to Mars will have to remove or replace some organs with artificial ones in order to protect them from the negative effects of radiation and heavy charged particles.
“Man, as a species, was formed on Earth, so he is not prepared for long-distance space flights by the entire course of his evolution. For flights to other planets, no matter how sinful it may seem, the human body should be slightly modified and improved. A person has critical organs that are most susceptible to the influence of radiation, which should be removed before a flight to Mars, replaced with artificial ones, ”said Vyacheslav Shurshakov, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to him, the installation of implants in the place of extracted teeth has become commonplace in the modern world. For participants in long-term interplanetary flights in the future, surgery will become just as natural, for example, on the eyes and on the brain.

Plans for a human flight to Mars appeared quite a long time ago, back in the 60s of the last century. And not in the books of science fiction writers, in which flights to Mars appeared much earlier, but at the state level.

On June 23, 1960, by decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a flight program to Mars was adopted, according to which the launch was planned for 1971, and the return for 1974. But this plan was not destined to come true.

In the 60s, a "moon race" unfolded, during which the United States was the first to tell the world about its landing on the moon, about which there are still different opinions, but be that as it may, the USSR recognized the US championship in trampling lunar soil and ... the Soviet leadership abandoned plans for a flight to Mars.

After the failure in the "lunar race", the Soviet space program was revised and priority was given to the creation of a manned orbital station. The flight to other planets has been postponed indefinitely.

In 1991, the Soviet Union was gone. The Mir station was flooded, the ISS was built in orbit instead, and space exploration took on a generally utilitarian character in the form of launching numerous satellites for communications, meteorology, geophysics, military purposes, and some others.

Instead of a man, automatic satellites flew to other planets, which, on the one hand, is economical and safe, but on the other ... not quite what they dreamed about at the dawn of astronautics.

So will a man fly to Mars at all?

And if it flies, when and who will it be?

Obviously, the Soviet cosmonauts will no longer fly to Mars, due to the absence of the Soviet Union. The Russian ones are also unlikely to fly in the foreseeable future, because Russia's resource-based economy does not contribute to the development of astronautics, and when the economy will become something else is a big question.

Maybe then someone else will fly to Mars?

In recent years, several plans for a flight to Mars have emerged at once.

The European Space Agency has drawn up a program called Aurora, according to which astronauts should land on Mars before 2033. True, the program immediately had a problem with funding and it seems that it is no longer destined to be fulfilled.

In the United States, the Constellation program was developed, within the framework of which, until 2010, it was supposed to create the Orion spacecraft, on which it would be possible to "return" (as the Americans themselves formulated) to the Moon, create a permanently inhabited base there, and then fly to Mars.

It was planned to create a habitable base on the Moon as part of the Constellation program by 2024, and fly to Mars in 2037.

In practice, in 2010, work on the Orion spacecraft had just begun and has not yet been completed. It is obvious that the implementation of the Constellation program is shifted in terms of at least 10 years and whether it will end with a flight to the Moon and Mars, or it will end with flights to the ISS "without Russia's participation" - it is unclear.

Doubts about the implementation of the Constellation program are caused not only by a large shift in the timing of the creation of the Orion spacecraft, but also by the lack of clarity in how exactly it is planned to fly to Mars. In 2012, a plan for a training and methodological landing on an asteroid was proposed, which was criticized and rejected. In 2015, a plan was put forward to tentatively resupply Mars in orbit and fly through the Moon's retrograde orbit. There is also a plan for a preliminary landing on one of the satellites of Mars - Phobos or Deimos. In short, NASA has not yet decided on the very approach to the flight to Mars, so there is every reason to doubt the imminent flight, and flight in general.

One of NASA's affiliated research centers (the Ames Center) has developed a program for a non-return flight to Mars for its colonization. But this program raises even more doubts, since the first flight is scheduled until 2030, that is, even earlier than under the Constellation program, which is already being shifted in terms of ten years, and if the flight was originally planned for the 37th year, then it will not actually be carried out. before the mid 40s. And in the center of Ames they want to fly already in the 30th.

There are several private projects for the flight to Mars:

Mars One - the project plans to send settlers to a base previously prepared by automation as early as 2026. The launch of machines for creating the base is planned for 2024. At the same time, at the moment, within the framework of the project, only the selection of candidates for the flight took place and nothing more. The implementation of the project within the specified time frame looks completely unrealistic.

Inspiration Mars Foundation - plans to send a manned expedition to fly around Mars - attention - in January 2020. As they say, nu-nu...

Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to send an unmanned lander to Mars in 2018, with a manned mission as early as 2024. I willingly believe in the launch of an unmanned vehicle, but for some reason not very much in the launch of a person within the designated time frame.

There are plans to fly to Mars in Russia as well.

However, Russian plans for a flight to Mars are still devoid of specifics. Roskosmos expects to launch a manned mission "in the first half of the 21st century." Rather, he expected.

In 2012, a plan was developed to create a super-heavy rocket Commonwealth together with Kazakhstan and ... Ukraine. Obviously, in the light of the events of 2014, this plan is no longer destined to come true. What kind of joint rocket for a flight to Mars can we talk about when the agenda is the transfer of southbound trains to a bypass route, bypassing Ukrainian territory?

In addition, Roskosmos constantly faces technical problems during launches, one of which arose in 2011 during the launch of the automatic module Phobos-soil to the satellite of Mars. Due to an emergency situation, the device failed to leave the near-Earth orbit. The restart is scheduled for 2020-2021.

Considering the problems that have arisen with the launch of an automatic (!) apparatus to Mars and the postponement of its launch by as much as 10 years, it can be assumed that the original plan for a manned flight "in the first half of the 21st century" will also not come true.

The most realistic at the moment are the plans of China, which ... does not plan to fly to Mars at all, but is going to land on the moon first. And this is logical.

Space exploration, as well as technical progress in general, can only be successful with consistent implementation, step by step.

In space exploration, as in science and technology in general, one cannot jump over a couple of steps to the third. Attempts to jump over a couple of steps in science and technology at once do not give a sustainable effect and, as a rule, lead to failures.

Before flying and landing on Mars, you need to land on the moon.

And not like the Americans did in 1969 - they told everyone, but they still cannot repeat it. Flights to the Moon must become reproducible and systematic, only after that it will be possible to confidently plan a flight to Mars, which is a hundred times further away.

An attempt to fly to Mars, bypassing the stage of exploration of the Moon with systematic flights and the creation of a lunar base, is a gamble.

There is no technical ban on flying to Mars, bypassing the Moon - you can fly. But the difficulty of flying to Mars is much higher than that of flying to the Moon. More distance, which means more fuel is required, and much more. The flight time is longer, which means that a long-term life support system is required, because there will be no opportunity to replenish supplies, as is done on the ISS. More cargo needs to be taken with you. Landing on Mars is more difficult given the greater gravity. The return launch from Mars is even more difficult.

Therefore, in order to confidently fly to Mars with real chances of successfully completing the mission and returning back, you first need to learn how to fly to the Moon - systematically, regularly, with a landing, with the creation of a lunar base - in much the same way as they fly to the ISS now.

That's when they will fly to the moon, as they fly to the ISS now - then the flight to Mars will become real. But this is still a long way off.

This is probably why the USSR abandoned the flight to Mars in the 70s - because they appreciated the complexity of the task and realized that bypassing the Moon to fly to Mars was too adventurous, and the flight to the Moon after the recognition of the "American landing" lost its original meaning.

And NASA understands that without a "return to the Moon" it is too difficult to fly to Mars and is fraught with the failure of the whole undertaking. Therefore, they plan to first "return to the moon", create a base there and then fly to Mars. But it also turns out to be difficult for the United States to carry out a "return to the moon" - either because there was no landing at all in 1969, or because the landing was carried out by some unique masters whose experience turned out to be irreproducible.

Even systematic flights to the Moon do not make a flight to Mars simple and affordable.

The distance to Mars is hundreds of times greater than to the Moon, and the duration of the flight will be calculated in months. Therefore, a flight to Mars will require a significantly heavier rocket than a flight to the Moon. The life support system for a mission to Mars needs to be bigger and more reliable. The supply of fuel for the flight and return should be more.

Launching to Mars directly from the earth's cosmodrome does not seem realistic at all - it will require the launch of a rocket that is too heavy. Projects for such missiles were developed, but no one has ever built or launched them, and whether such monsters will be reliable enough is unclear.

One of the projects for a flight to Mars, developed back in the USSR, assumed a launch from orbit - and this looks the most effective and realistic. But to launch from orbit, you must first put into orbit the components for assembling the "Martian rocket" and assemble them. And for this you need to create in orbit something like an assembly complex - an orbital station designed for this. But no one has created anything like this yet.

It seems that before the flight of man to Mars is still very, very far away.

Theoretically, the programs of flights to the Moon and Mars can be forced and fly by the 37th year, as NASA plans. Or at least "in the first half of the 21st century," as Roscosmos gathered.

But in order to explore space in a forced mode, a new space race must begin, which was in the 60s between the USSR and the USA. But the USSR is no more, and without the Soviet Union and the United States there is no point in exerting all their strength and spending all available funds on space exploration.

After the liquidation of the USSR, cosmonautics became very utilitarian, aimed at solving purely practical problems of communications, meteorology, and geophysics. And there is no pronounced commercial sense in landing on the Moon and Mars, so it is not necessary to count on forcing the lunar and Martian programs.

This means that we will not fly to Mars soon.

At best, in the next 20 years, someone flies to the moon to finally find out if Armstrong actually trampled it or not. And to Mars...

Mars is very far away.

In the 60s, on the wave of success in space exploration, it seemed that Mars was close, within easy reach - since we had gone into space, it was enough to make a slightly larger rocket - and go! And there are other planets! And then to the stars in general!

Science fiction writers, inspired by the successes of astronautics, wrote about the settlement of planets and interstellar flights as something close and accessible, but after 60 years, all this has remained a fantasy.

It turned out that to the Moon, and even more so to Mars, is not one small step, which, after a man enters space, is about to be taken. Before flying to the Moon and Mars, there are still a number of steps to be taken, which turned out to be very difficult and which the Soviet Union never managed to do, and for the rest they turned out to be too expensive and devoid of commercial sense.

Under capitalism, if there is no commercial sense in the project, then its implementation can drag on indefinitely. Therefore, it may turn out that under the current economic system we will not fly to Mars at all.

Let's fly under communism ...