This is Why We Explore Space

In 1969 United states spend 40 billion in space funding to win space race between Soviet Union and United states. But after betting Soviets in Moon race, US decreased the Space Funding due to Expensive Apollo program.

Since then, Space funding has not being priority of any country and value of Space funding keep getting lower and lower. But that doesn't mean that we are not advancing in space, We have acquired knowledge and technology that can take us far away in the universe. After the Apollo program many space mission have happened in the history that are as important as Moon landing. SOYUZ Space-craft series, SKYLAB, MIR, INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, FALCON-9(REUSEABLE ROCKET), STARSHIP, ARTEMIS, and many more.

So why government is spending it's money on all this ? Due to space race, personal benefit... ?nahhh, they're doing it cause to make our civilization "HUMAN CIVILIZATION" multiplanetary species. We can't live on this planet forever after century Earth will be either like fictional movie or it will be like dead planet emitting CO2. We have to need settlement on other planet, on space, so that our species may live-on.

The project that are going on now are just the beginning of a new space age that will not only make us but the future generation a multiplanetary species and what if we find some one out there. upcoming Artemis program that make a moon-base till 2025 and a nuclear fission reactor till 2030 and Elon musk's Starship that will take human to mars till 2025-26 to make mars colonies for future mars plans and after that Europa(Jupiter's moon that is habitable for human).

Space is not the end, it is just the beginning, it is the final frontier. We all know and it has been said "Sky's not the limit". Then main question come's to mind that even after so many years why haven't we colonize space yet ? Answer to that is we have Since 2001 there has always a human in space to study and examine plants in ISS and in marking 2022 it is still there and many other space station has been taking place that china's space station and Indian space station and many more.

But even then also we have not yet been to any other planet since the Apollo mission,

Here are the main reason,

According to NASA, there are a number of obstacles that we still need to overcome before sending a human mission to the planet, including technological innovation and a better understanding of the human body, mind and how we might adapt to life on another planet.

In short, these obstacles can be summarized into three major problems, say Michelle Rucker, lead of NASA’s Human Mars Architecture Team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Jeffrey Sheehy, chief engineer of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate: Get there, land there, live there and leave there.

A Long Voyage

" the first obstacle is the sheer distance" said by Rucker. Distance between earth and mars is 55 million kilometers away from it's closest point, but distance between mars and earth is not always the same. The Earth and Mars orbit the sun at different distances and speeds, meaning that there are certain more optimal periods to travel between the two, especially considering the idea is to not just to make it to Mars quickly, but to make it back.

"The train to Mars is every 26 months". Sheehy says, adding that the last such window occurred in July 2020. That last train was perhaps the busiest period ever seen for interplanetary travel—three uncrewed Mars missions were launched last summer in the space of two weeks.

All 26-month windows are not the same, though. Sheehy notes that on top of this, there is a larger roughly 15-year cycle when that window is even more favorable than others. But Sheehy says that a vehicle optimized to reach the planet during the most favorable opportunity might not be necessarily the same we’d need for other years.

The Human Problem

Aside from technology, we also need to learn more about how humans—creatures that evolved to live in the Earth’s atmosphere with the Earth’s gravity—are going to cope with being in a low gravity, close proximity, close environment situation on spaceships for several months of transit.

Work on this has been underway for some time, whether it’s studying how astronauts living on the International Space Station cope with the isolation and low gravity up there, and how they cope when coming back to Earth. The various lunar missions have also revealed how the astronauts there dealt with the low-gravity situation there

Furthermore, missions like NASA's CHAPEA, a planned yearlong Mars simulation, will also informing scientists about what kind of problems might arise with a small group of people over a long mission. Other ongoing research missions in Antarctica can also help inform us what to expect. These kinds of questions are important for determining how long it takes, and how many people are needed, to pull off basic tasks.

Another concern is how humans might be able to manage living in small confined spaces for a long time without much outside contact. “If you are tired of the food you’re eating you can’t say ‘Let’s order a pizza,’” Rucker says.

Landing

Getting to Mars’ orbit is only half the battle. The other challenge is landing on the Red Planet safely, though not necessarily in one piece. Sheehy says that NASA is working on developing an inflatable decelerator—something like a reverse parachute that would protect and slow the landing craft while penetrating the atmosphere. To actually land, the craft would need something like supersonic retropulsion—basically jets on the bottom that reverse the massive thrust enough to bring the craft safely to the ground.

To overcome the challenge of developing this, Sheehy says that NASA plans to launch such a system into our orbit then land it back on Earth to see if it works.

Once on the ground, another potential obstacle is the dust storms. Dust proved to be a major irritant to astronauts on the moon. Since no wind or other forces erode the particles, the dust was sharp and chafing on parts of astronauts’ suits. It got everywhere, and irritated the eyes.

Mars dust may not be quite so sharp since there are erosive forces there, but the dust storms can be massive—in 2018 the rover Opportunity went offline after one bad tempest there. Rucker says that researchers have learned a lot about these Martian dust storms, but they’re still not quite sure if they’ve witnessed the worst of them.

Aside from the risk to any astronauts or equipment on the planet, the storms also kick up enough dust to block sunlight, meaning any solar-powered equipment may not work well for a period.

Equipment is a serious concern while on the planet as well. Sheehy says that any human mission to Mars would likely need to be preceded by a cargo delivery.

“Those things would be put there and checked out before we even commit to sending astronauts,” he says.

Other obstacles to overcome would be the building of the ship to travel there. Sheehy and Rucker estimate it would at least need to be the size of a football field in length, depending on the propulsion system technology we go with and how many people we ultimately decide to send. Roughly anything from a little smaller than the International Space Station in size to significantly bigger.

Both believe that we might get there in the 2030s. The next most favorable window for sending humans on a relatively quick round-trip to Mars would be in 2033, but it’s unclear whether politics, budget and technology will be ready by then.

Until then, we’re learning more every day.

“We are laying a lot of the ground work for going to Mars,” Rucker says.

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