The key facts
- Alexander Lazutkin: the main problems of a Mars expedition are food, radiation and crew health
- The flight will take about two years; only about ten people have taken part in year-long space missions
- The cosmonaut commented on Elon Musk's plan to send 100 people to Mars
Humanity is not yet ready for a Martian expedition
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin told RIA Novosti that humanity is not yet ready to send people to Mars. According to him, even building the most modern and powerful spacecraft does not guarantee the expedition's success. The flight will take about two years, and all that time the crew must be supplied with food and kept safe.
Food and radiation
“Technically we can do it, but to carry out the flight we need to solve elementary things, for example, what to feed people,” Lazutkin commented on Elon Musk's plan to send 100 people to Mars. He named space radiation as another serious problem: Earth is protected by its magnetic field, but this protection does not even reach the Moon, and Mars is much farther away. During powerful solar flares the cosmonauts would be in danger, and returning to Earth quickly would be impossible. “Any flare on the Sun will destroy that hundred people who flew to Mars on a super-modern spacecraft,” the cosmonaut emphasized.
Impact on health and psyche
To date, only about ten people have taken part in year-long space missions, so scientists still do not know exactly how the human body will endure a two-year flight. Lazutkin also drew attention to the psychological difficulties: far from Earth, the crew will for a long time be unable to see either their home planet or Mars, and life in endless space under weightlessness conditions can put serious pressure on the psyche.
Experience and conclusions
Alexander Lazutkin spent 185 days aboard the Mir orbital station in 1997. In his view, organizing an expedition to Mars requires the joint work of engineers, doctors, psychologists and other specialists.
