Astronauts traveling through space on the long trip to Mars will not have the usual backup from mission control on Earth and will need to think of themselves as Martians to survive, Canada's most famous spaceman half-jokingly said Friday.

Current predictions are that humans will reach Mars -- up to 400 million kilometers (250 million miles) from Earth -- in the coming decades.

But the vast distance means communications with mission control would be delayed by up to 22 minutes.

As a result, astronauts would need to be self-reliant on the voyage, which clocks in at 2.5 years round trip in travel time alone.

"If I were commander of that crew as soon as the Earth started fading in the rearview mirror, I would get the crew together and say: 'We are no longer Earthlings, we are now Martians. That's who we are. We need to redefine our relationship with the planet that birthed us,'" former astronaut Chris Hadfield said.

"It's going to be very difficult not having Mother Earth next to you and it's going to be really important for that crew to define who they are as the most distant explorers in human history," he said.

Hadfield, whose 2013 rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" aboard the International Space Station was watched by millions, was taking part with fellow astronauts in a fireside chat with students at the University of Ottawa.

Robert Thirsk -- who holds the Canadian record for the most time spent in space -- said new Canadian Space Agency recruits Joshua Kutryk and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons "are going to go to deep space, returning to the moon, to an asteroid... and then 20 years from now we're going to be on the surface of Mars exploring."

In the short term, "the idea of living on the moon... is becoming very, very real," said Kutryk.

The Canadian astronaut was on hand for last week's final tests in the southwestern US desert of the Orion interplanetary spacecraft, designed as he said to "will bring humans back to the moon in the next few years."

In the coming months Canada will launch three satellites, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will travel to the ISS, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to study an asteroid carrying Canadian sensors will arrive at the asteroid Bennu where samples will be retrieved for return to Earth in 2023.

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Sorry Elon Musk, but it's now clear that colonising Mars is unlikely
London, UK (The Conversation) Aug 06, 2018
Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk has a vision for colonising Mars, based on a big rocket, nuclear explosions and an infrastructure to transport millions of people there. This was seen as highly ambitious but technically challenging in several ways. Planetary protection rules and the difficulties of terraforming (making the planet hospitable by, for example, warming it up) and dealing with the harsh radiation were quoted as severe obstacles. Undeterred, Musk took a first step towards his aim in ... read more