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NASA\u2019s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover has successfully launched on its epic mission to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n
The rover launched into space atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 7:50 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.<\/p>\n
After a seven month transit, The Rover will seek evidence of ancient Martian life forms and even attempt powered flight via Ingenuity, a helo the craft transported from Earth. <\/p>\n
Manned missions are currently in the planning stages.<\/p>\n
AW1 Rod sends.<\/p>\n
BY RYAN RANDALL<\/strong><\/p>\n Mars is the next frontier in space for human exploration, but how will we get there? Research underway at Florida Tech is examining travel possibilities via a cycler spacecraft and an associated crew transfer system.<\/p>\n Aerospace engineering associate professor Markus Wilde, alongside university graduate student Larissa Balestrero Machado, recently released a research paper, \u201cParametric Design of a Crew Transfer Vehicle for Earth\u2013Mars Cyclers\u201d that examines the spacecraft mass and size required to transfer crew between Earth, a cycler spacecraft, and Mars.<\/p>\n The cycler spacecraft would stay in an elliptical orbit around the Sun, performing regular fly-bys of Earth and Mars. The crew transfer vehicle would lift off from Earth during one of those fly-bys, catch up with the cycler to deliver the crew, and after a few months transport the crew from the cycler to a low Mars orbit. After the crew finishes its mission on Mars, the crew transfer vehicle and cycler will then be used in reverse order to get the crew back to Earth and pick up the next expedition. The cycler potentially will provide a providing a potential cost-efficient and energy-efficient space travel solution.<\/p>\n Wilde and Machado\u2019s initial research findings have determined that \u201caerocapture,\u201d an orbital transfer maneuver in which a spacecraft uses aerodynamic drag force from a single pass through a planetary atmosphere to decelerate and achieve orbit insertion, could reduce the amount of fuel needed to reach Mars. The findings also emphasized the importance of a heat shield, which would be used to prevent spacecraft from burning up on entry into a planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is, what if we start flying missions to Mars basically every time we can, so that we start a pipeline almost like a train service that would get new crews to and from Mars every two years?\u201d Wilde said. \u201cInstead of flying point-to-point missions that we do with rovers and unmanned spacecraft, we could use a cycler for sustainable, crewed Mars exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n The motivation for the current cycler research stems from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, whose Cycling Pathway to Occupy Mars system involved spacecraft travelling between Earth and Mars possibly using far less propellant than conventional means, with an expected five-and-a-half-month journey from the Earth to Mars, and a return trip to Earth of about the same duration on a twin semi-cycler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Buzz was a brilliant engineer and the first Astronaut with a doctoral degree. He also was a fighter pilot.<\/p>\n