Baptiste Lawniczek & Alexandre Enaudeau
The ExoMars team, a European mission, was about to land its Schiaparelli module on the Red planet on Wednesday, October 19th 2016. It was designed to measure the magnetic field on Mars for the first time. Moreover, by studying the gas composition of its atmosphere thanks to the Trace Gas Orbiter probe, they could prove that there is life on Mars. Indeed, the discovery of methane could be an indicator of a micro-organism activity. Europe wants to prove its capacity to land a rover on Martian soil. Indeed, the European Spacial Agency landed the Huygens module on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, in 2005 and realized a world premiere by sending the Philae robot to a comet called Tchourioumov-Guérassimenko. The ExoMars mission’s success would be a demonstration of technological competency. But it would also bring new information that could allow humans to find solutions to make life on Mars possible.
In fact, the race is on to land a human on Mars. During the 67th international congress of astronautics in Mexico, Elon Musk announced plans for his company SpaceX to send people to the Red Planet by 2024. According to him, even if the price would be close to billions of dollars to go to Mars with current technology, he could reduce it to 100.000 dollars. That’s why Elon Musk is clear about the idea of coming back : ‘The people that we send there are going on a mission forever, for the rest of their lives. That is really what makes this project possible’ he said. His goal is to create a permanent colony on the Red Planet thanks to a transport module that could carry hundreds of people.
But they are not the only ones in contention. Dutch organization Mars One also has the ambitious plan to set up a long-term Mars colony. Strangely, the terms and conditions of the trip have not topped tens of thousands of people applying for a place on board. Members of the public have already been selected for the voyage. Only four will be chosen for the first trip. On the Red Planet, the colony will be self-sufficient to avoid needing to be resupplied from Earth. They will feed themselves from their production of food, extract water from the soil and regenerate their atmosphere with the same plants they are growing.
Given what is at stake, it will be a huge asset for the organization which first succeeds in landing a man on Mars and establishing a colony. But some matters still need to be solved before the great departure. Indeed, according to the latest news, the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander has crashed because of a computer glitch.
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