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The prospect of living and working on other worlds is very exciting,

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but there are many questions that need to be answered before this vision can become a reality.

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Food concerns, radiation exposure, space suits that can withstand the rigors placed upon them,

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and a host of other problems are concerns for NASA planners.

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Johnny Alonzo spoke with Lisa Guerra at NASA headquarters to find out how it works.

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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In the late 60s and early 70s, researchers at NASA learned quite a bit about living and working on other worlds

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with the success of the Apollo moon landings.

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These missions helped broaden our understanding of how humans can work and interact outside of the comforts of Earth.

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But even though much was learned about problems astronauts would face on other worlds,

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the human presence on the moon was relatively short, generally only a few days at a time.

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Future missions to Mars will be much longer, potentially lasting years at a time.

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Things that many of us take for granted, such as food, clothing, medical care and safety,

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are some of the biggest challenges that need to be addressed by NASA planners.

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To help us understand what is being done to prepare for these long-duration missions,

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I spoke with Lisa Guerra at NASA headquarters to find out how it works.

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The major challenge to live and work on other worlds is predominantly adapting to a new environment.

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The crews will be coming to these new worlds, and the one we've been looking at in particular is Mars,

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and have to arrive and adapt to the environment.

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And that environment on Mars involves a third of our Earth's gravity,

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as well as different weather patterns, dust storms, which we are particularly concerned with,

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radiation, which we have to measure and understand how to protect the crews against.

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And in particular, these crews will be traveling for long distances from Earth to Mars,

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and we will have to have the crews fend for themselves once they get there.

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There will not be hosts of doctors and NASA personnel when they arrive,

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and so are they physically able to adapt to this environment as soon as they get there.

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So when our astronauts arrive at Mars, will they have to go permanent basis,

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or could they just live on the spacecraft that they arrive in?

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Whether they live in their spacecraft, or we would have to have a more permanent habitat for them,

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would depend on how long they would stay at Mars.

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And there are two different approaches to sending crews to Mars.

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One involves a short stay, and that's on the length of about 30 days on the surface of Mars.

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If that's how long they would be there, they could probably live out of their spacecraft,

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much like the Apollo astronauts did.

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However, if we take the other approach to going to Mars,

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they could be there for almost 500 days, from a year to 500 days in Mars' vicinity.

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And in that case, it's a very long time for six people to live out of one spacecraft,

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so we would probably have a larger habitat and presence on the surface.

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It would also mean we'd probably need other power sources than solar power,

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because they'd have to sustain their activities for such a long period of time.

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And with the weather and dust conditions, it makes solar power very difficult on Mars.

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So, Lisa, when astronauts are on Mars for years at a time, how would they get their food and water?

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As I mentioned, if they could stay for over a year,

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ideally you could use some of the resources that might be on Mars.

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And with our current Mars robotic program,

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we are trying to determine the levels of potential water or water ice on the planet.

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And if we do find sources in large quantities of water,

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we could use that for the crews, as well as use it in fuel cells for power generation.

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We could also use the atmosphere, which is made up predominantly of carbon dioxide,

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and you could use methods to decompose the carbon dioxide into oxygen,

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and then we could use that oxygen for the spacecraft air.

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As far as food goes, again, if you have water and oxygen,

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you could ultimately see the crews developing their own growth chambers

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and actually growing their own food,

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and that would be something we'd look into if we were staying there for a long time.

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What are some of the differences astronauts might face working on the Moon compared to working on Mars?

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The difference between spending and occupying time on the Moon to Mars,

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first and foremost, is that the Moon is much closer to the Earth, about a three-day trip.

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We could actually rescue the crews if necessary.

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They could come back and get medical care.

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They would not have to be as self-sufficient,

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and you could set up like a ferry system with logistics, much like we do with the space station.

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So, again, the crews could operate for varying amounts of time,

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but still be reliant on the Earth, whereas the distance to Mars is so much greater.

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We'd have to build the reliability and maintainability into our systems

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and have the crews be much more self-sufficient.

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Music

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Right now, NASA is planning to use the Moon as a testbed for Mars.

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This would be primarily a systems-type testbed,

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design some of these life support systems and spacesuits,

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and use them and work them on the Moon and learn from that engineering experience

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and then improve the design for Mars.

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One major challenge that will need to be addressed

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will be what type of spacesuit our astronauts will wear on other worlds.

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The current suits used on the shuttle and in the space station work well,

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but they are not designed for full-range motions like walking and working on a planetary surface.

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So future suits will probably look more like the suits that were used during the Apollo program.

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These new suits will need to be much more durable and better suited

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for the harsh conditions astronauts will encounter on other worlds.

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The other issue, though, with spacesuits for Mars is the dust issue.

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The dust tends to be very electrostatic,

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and there are concerns that if you came into the habitat or the airlock with your suit,

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that dust would get circulated into the air system.

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So there are concepts being developed where maybe the suit never comes into your habitat,

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that you actually step out of it, like walk out from the back of your suit into your habitat,

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and the suit's always exposed to the environment.

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We're looking at this as not just a milestone,

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but a journey to actually get beyond Earth orbit,

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to get beyond the Moon and go to other worlds.

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And so everything we do today and everything we expect to do in the next couple of decades

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will give us a capability to enable us to get to Mars.

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And it may not be within my career, but it may be the young engineers in school today

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that they will see it through, and then the next generation, the next generation.

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So that's how it works.

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So for the next generation of explorers, walking on Mars, looking at the cards,

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with my pole here at NASA, I guess I might see you there.

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That's it for this edition of Destination Tomorrow.

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I'm Steel McGonigal.

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And I'm Kara O'Brien.

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For all of us here at NASA, we'll see you next time.

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology