The ‘Journey to Mars’ project that is forecast to be ongoing for the next several decades, planned to send manned space crafts to the surface of Mars is already in the works. Until human crews actually get to leave on the trip to the Red Planet, multiple test runs, lander and probe launches and many more will have to be done as prerequisites as humanity setting foot on another planet of our solar system is not an event to be taken lightly.
While NASA is already in process of recruiting the ‘Class of Mars’ that will select a mere 13 individuals out of thousands of applicants to be trained and maybe one day be sent out to the red planet, the real preparation is ongoing on multiple fronts at the same time.
Only recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has made upgrades to a rocket engine and began testing it in preparation for the crewed flight that will take place and take humans outside of Earth’s orbit for the first time in 45 years.
The engine in question dubbed the Space Launch System – or SLS – has seniority, having previously helped launch no less than five different space shuttle missions. Its last launch took place back in 2011, so it was necessary that the rocket engine would receive a well-deserved upgrade. Thus, on the test flight that it was subjected to on March 10th, last week, the SLS was equipped with four RS-25 engines in its core and showcased its capabilities for an entire 8-minute long launch. This officially marked the first flight certification test of the engine since its update.
The SLS rocket engine, as it as right now, is a repurposed piece from the Shuttle program and will help carry a human crew to the surface of an asteroid by year 2025 and to the surface of planet Mars in the 2030s. Before these two assignments, however, the SLS is scheduled to take flight in 2018 to carry an unmanned Orion capsule into orbit along with 13 cubesats. Depending on the result of the launch, as well as the capability of engineers and scientists to handle anything that the engine might be lacking for greater-scale missions, it will be decided whether the next mission remains set for 2023 or a later date.
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