When will people go to Mars? Ex-astronaut expects mission in about 15 years

Former German astronaut Ulrich Walter expects humans will land on Mars by the end of the 2030s. The next optimal constellation with the fastest flight path would be 2033.

According to the American space agency NASA, preparations cannot be made by then, the professor of space technology from Munich told the German news agency. This constellation only appears once every 15 years. So the next good opportunity is 2048. NASA doesn’t want to wait that long.

“If you want to fly between them, in theory you can do that every two years. So maybe they will fly in late 2035 or 2037/38 or early 2040,” Walter said. “But that means they need more fuel and a correspondingly bigger rocket.” The tanks could be left on Mars – as the first building blocks for habitats in which humans will live, and in the longer term in homes covered with regolith – crumbled rock – to protect against cosmic rays.

But first this must be achieved on the moon. “The only way to Mars is through the moon, but not spatially.” The plans of the major spacefaring countries – in addition to the US and especially China – are not about flying to the moon again “to show that we can land there. But: we have enough technology under control to survive a two-and-a-half-year mission to Mars.”

Because: “If something goes wrong, you have to be able to save yourself. You must be able to repair things yourself, you must be able to provide your own medical care. All this has to work. The only way to prove you can do this is on the moon. Because you can fly to the moon in three days and back in three days,” says Walter.

The first crewed moon landing by NASA as part of the ‘Artemis’ program is currently expected for 2027, Walter said. “And then they need at least eight years to build up habitats and show that they have everything under control.” China has announced that it wants to put a man on the moon and build a station there by 2030. (dabbing/sda/apa)