Mars is a spare planet

We publish a review of a book dedicated to the planet of our dreams. The author of the review is an astronomer, laureate of the Enlightener Prize Vladimir Surdin .

Mars is the topic of today. Now many and a lot are talking about him, almost as often as a hundred years ago. But if at the beginning of the twentieth century the Martian channels aroused an inquisitive audience, foreshadowing the meeting with extraterrestrial civilization, then what attracts to this topic now? Why do Mars write and make cinema, give lectures and announce a set of future colonists? The answer is not so obvious, since there is no one reason for the exciting interest in Mars. On the topic of Mars, several achievements and crises of our era were focused today. Therefore, it is not surprising that some want to learn more about Mars, others - to tell about him, and others - to earn on this.

Thinking about buying a book, we usually turn the title page and read the annotation. So I did; I read: “Is there life on Mars ? We still do not know the answer to this question . But then we know for sure that she will appear there soon ... ” I felt goosebumps on my back and even cold sweat, I could no longer pass this book. Will we soon bring earth organisms to Mars? Having not yet figured out the history of Martian life, will we infect this unique space reserve with our microbes? Who is the author of such a bold forecast? I read on:

“The author of this book , a specialist in the field of technological forecast and the permanent speaker Ted Stephen Petranek , is sure that the first manned flight to Mars will take place before 2030 . Moreover , this , most likely , will be an expedition to one way : the astronauts who landed on Mars will remain there forever ... "

Well, it would be difficult to doubt it. But if these daredevils accidentally remain alive, then such a forecast of me as an astronomer and a biology lover is alarming. Therefore, I decided to read the book to the end.

As it turned out, the book is very fresh, in English was published in mid -2015. It was written in a living language and translated by him, but the work of editors is hardly called impeccable. The position of the author of the book is simple and romantic: he delighted with Mars di Rect projects Robert Zubrin, the Inspiration Mars Dennis Tito and Mars One Bas Lansdorpa. The author is convinced that the manned flight to Mars is about to take place, and the problem is not whether it will be and when exactly, but how we will live there. However, the story begins with the predawn years of the Cosmic era - from the Martian project of Werner von Brown, stated in his famous book “Das Marsprojekt”, published in the United States in 1952 and for ten years ahead of his time. The author does not hide admiration for a brilliant racket and talks in sufficient detail about the American period of his life von Brown, about his real dream of flights to the moon and unfulfilled - about flights to Mars.

The fact that the Martian dream of von Brown has not yet been realized, the author accuses NASA with his unjustifiably expensive Space Shuttle program and ineffective work for the ISS. And he sees the cosmic future of mankind in the fast -growing possibilities of private cosmonautics. I will not hide, I like this forecast too.

Not many people know that the era of private cosmonautics began 30 years ago, when three students of the Harvard business school created a startup Orbital Sciences Corporation , which developed a three -stage Pegas cruise missile weighing about 20 tons, which starts from the stratosphere from the aircraft and withdrawing a low -air orbit of a useful mass 443 kg. Since 1990, Pegas has sent four dozen satellites into space at a very modest price of $ 56.3 million (2014) for launch with full pre -flight service and escort.

So private cosmonautics is not born today, but is already entering the time of its maturity. At the same time, many private companies dreams of flying to Mars. Having briefly telling them, the author makes a verdict: if one of the private traders can get ahead of NASA in the delivery of people to Mars, then it will be Ilon Musk with his Space Exploration Technologies , or just Spacex . The author of the book by Stephen Petrans is ready to put only Ilona Mask next to von Brown, evaluating his fanatical devotion to the dream and the ability to bring his dream to the result. Having evaluated the technical capabilities of a person’s flight to Mars, the author concludes that in the coming years they will already appear, and NASA, most likely, will lag behind in this race from private entrepreneurs.

The author discusses the problems associated with the flight to Mars (and this is 8–9 months in the interplanetary space), in the sense that these problems are: weightlessness, supplies of water and oxygen, psychological compatibility, disease and the main problem are a high level of radiation; But you can solve them. How? Engineers will come up with something. Frankly, such a forecast does not look very convincing, but since the author does not bother the author, then most readers will not be confused.

Further, economic problems: will the expeditions be too expensive for Mars? Today, the Falcon-9 mask rocket raises 13 tons of useful cargo in a low orbit, and this costs the customer $ 61 million. But this is a reusable missile. If you manage to bring its resource to 1000 flights, then the price will decrease to 61 thousand dollars, which will make a flight to Mars no more than climbing Everest.

Dreaming is not harmful ... After all, sometimes dreams are fulfilled! And the dreams of Ilona Mask are usually performed. His company is already developing the Mars Kolonaisizer missile, whose flotilla in 2030–205 will annually deliver tens of thousands of colonists to Mars. You say: "Fantasy!" Take your time. Who could foresee the current scale of air transportation at the beginning of the twentieth century? And in the middle of the twentieth century, experts were sure that a dozen computers would be enough to cover all the needs of mankind. They would look at this humanity today, when everyone has a computer in their hands! So it is worth listening to optimistic forecasts about the colonization of Mars.

So, we got to Mars. What next? The topic declared in the title is "How will we live on Mars?" - It occupies the second half of the book. It describes life support technologies: where to get water, how to extract oxygen, how to engage in agriculture. The latter is especially interesting, since today there are many experiments in the “Martian crop production” in the world, that is, to grow various crops on poor soils in low temperature and weak sunlight, which is very relevant for many regions of our country.

The author demonstrates a lot of ideas for the development of Mars, and those that relate to the arrangement of small scientific stations and colonies look quite realistic, albeit incredibly expensive. When it comes to terraforming, that is, the radical remake of the Martian climate and nature, there are so many problems that the author is forced to rely on the future development of science and technology. At the same time, he comes to a rather unexpected conclusion: given the rapid development of genetic engineering, it will be easier to remake a person under the conditions on Mars! It is necessary to bring out a new breed of people adapted to life on a harsh planet. The idea is interesting and worthy of discussion. Wait and see.

The last part of the book concerns the economy of the Martian colonies: the development of minerals, production and trade with land (and with whom else to trade in the solar system?). Here, the author abundantly quotes the same Ilon Mask, who gave him an exclusive interview. As a competent engineer, Musk understands that the main obstacle to the space business is gravity. Therefore, Mars, as well as Cerer, attract him as bridgeheads for mining in the asteroid belt: the costs of overcoming their gravity are much less than the costs of overcoming the gravity of the Earth. Production of materials obtained can be placed on Mars, but only high -tech products will be advantageous to export to Earth: “Imagine, you hold the thirtieth iPhone in your hands, and on the lid is an inscription:“ Made on Mars ”.”

I admit that it is no longer so difficult to believe the one who in the 1990s held in his hands only a worthless consumer goods with the inscription “made in China”, and twenty years later-ultra-modern computers with the same inscription. Since 2012, some of the largest businessmen of the planet have been organized by firms for the extraction of materials and production in space. And these people know how to look into the future ...

In general, the book carried me away. This is not fantasy and not even science fiction, but the reality of today and tomorrow. The text is concise and informative. The block of color illustrations is very good. Many of them are original and on paper are published for the first time. But the work of the editors, I repeat, did not cause admiration for me. In addition to some technical punctures I was annoyed by inches, miles, feet and pounds, which, when translated, is customary to convert into the SI system. And the words “frontiers” instead of “borders” and “synergy” instead of “consent” finally confused: is this translation or transliteration?

Nevertheless, the book is very interesting and it is useful to read it, if only in order not to lose sight of the train of modern civilization, which is rapidly leaving.

Read more about the book see . www.corpus . ru/authors/stiven-petranek.htm