A former NASA engineer, Jim McLane, made an amazing proposal about 15 years ago: send one or two people to Mars, in a one way trip. By eliminating the most complex stage of the mission – the return from the Martian soil – one of the great common objectives of humanity would be facilitated: to conquer the red planet. Those early adventurers would live alone on Mars until more volunteers arrived, wanting to build a new civilization on another world. the spanish engineer Carlos Garcia Galan I wouldn’t rule out participating in such a mission. “I would have to think about it,” he says completely seriously.
García Galán, a 48-year-old from Madrid who has spent half his life at NASA, is one of the protagonists of the new era of space exploration. If everything goes as planned, the US space agency will launch the Artemis I mission this Wednesday at 1:04 p.m. (7:04 p.m., Spanish peninsular time) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will be the first rehearsal, without passengers, of the expedition in which “the first woman and the first non-white person” will walk on the Moon, around 2025, according to NASA plans. García Galán is responsible for the integration of the two main parts of the ship: the crew capsule, made in the United States, and the European service module, which supplies oxygen, water, power and propulsion. The Moon, he proclaims, is only the first step to Mars. After two failed attempts in the summer, everything is ready for launch.
Ask. Going to the International Space Station is a matter of hours, going to the Moon takes about three days, but going to Mars already involves a journey of even two or three years. It is a totally different challenge to what we have known so far.
Response. Yes, bringing humans to Mars is another dimension. We have brought robots, but it is not the same. So the goal of missions in the next decade or two is going to be, first, to go back to the Moon, and then to develop new technologies and science to learn what it takes to go to Mars: from laying permanent bases beyond from near-Earth orbit, until you can use the resources on that planet. For example, learning to make fuel with the water of the Moon and being able to be totally disconnected from the Earth. We have to do all of that before we can take a big step like going to Mars, where you need a year or two to get back to Earth or have resources brought to you.
P. Then-US President Donald Trump said three years ago: “With all the money we’re spending, NASA shouldn’t be talking about going to the Moon. We did that 50 years ago.”
R. What we are doing now is very different from what we did 50 years ago. Getting to the Moon now is just the first step. We go there to stay. The Apollo Program was very focused on reaching the Moon. Our objective now is to establish a permanent platform there, with a rocket to be able to carry astronauts every year with the Orion spacecraft, which is the one that is going to take the astronauts to lunar orbit and return them to Earth. It is the ship that will take the first woman and a person of color to the lunar surface.
Getting to the Moon now is just the first step. we go there to stay
P. When will a human being walk on the surface of Mars?
R. It’s hard to tell. The current plan is that in this decade we are going to return to the lunar surface and we are going to start doing the first missions there, especially in the lunar poles, where we believe there is more opportunity to find water that we can extract. This decade is going to be about going back and starting to lay down the first components of all the infrastructure that we’ve thought of, including the Gateway Space Station around the Moon. In the next decade, we will begin to establish the infrastructure on the lunar surface, for example, pressurized vehicles to be able to explore different sites on the Moon. Also a base where astronauts can stay for 30 days or more, even. And I think that, at the end of that next decade, we will already start to develop the systems that will be able to go to Mars.
P. No stepping on Mars before 2040, then.
R. You never know, but with the plans we have now, it would be around that time.
P. In the year 1969 it was easy to imagine that the first person to walk on the Moon would be a white Christian American man. How do you imagine the first person on Mars?
R. It is difficult to imagine it. There is an incredible diversity in the people who work in the space program now. I have not thought about what it would be like, but I imagine it will reflect what society is: there will be women and men of all colors and ethnicities.
P. You dreamed of being an astronaut as a child. Have you given up on the idea or is there still time?
R. You never know. I haven’t totally abandoned the idea. Right now there are different ways to be able to be an astronaut. I could do it for NASA or even for the European Space Agency, but there are other ways that are appearing now, related to tourism. 15 years ago no one could imagine that there would be private companies taking people into space and look where we are now [la primera misión privada a la Estación Espacial Internacional, organizada por la empresa estadounidense Axiom Space, tuvo lugar en abril]. I believe that when we start the missions to the Moon, a lunar economy of private companies will also be created that will support our program. You never know what is going to come out of that. The idea of going to space is still on my mind.
P. You have already tried to be a NASA astronaut. Will you continue to appear for your tests or those of the European Space Agency?
R. I didn’t show up for the last one, because I was much more focused on my role as engineer and crew chief, but, due to my age, maybe I could do it one more time.
P. And will it show up?
R. I do not know yet. It depends on what we are doing and how I am personally at the next opportunity. ESA is in a selection process now. At NASA there are always opportunities every two or three years.
P. Would you go to Mars if you became an astronaut?
R. I do. I have always wanted to engage in exploration and push the limits of what we know and what we do as humanity. It is our responsibility to do it and, if I had the opportunity, I would go, of course. It would be part of that mission.
Maybe alien life is in a way we can’t even imagine
P. Are you in time to be one of the members of the first mission to Mars as an astronaut?
R. I think the mission to Mars would catch me a little late. People who are now in school or even entering university are at the right age to participate in these missions. Although, in 15 or 20 years, anyone knows which people we will want to select. Maybe I’d have a chance, but today I think I’m a little late.
P. In his day there was even talk of going to Mars with a one-way ticket: humans going there to be fascinated by the Martian immensity and staying to die. Would you even go like this?
R. I don’t know, it would be quite a difficult decision. At NASA we are thinking about ensuring the return of people to Earth. I would have to think about it, it depends on how my life was at that moment and the objectives of the mission that we were going to carry out.
P. He has children?
R. Yes.
P. Then the decision would be more difficult.
R. They are a little older now. [Risas]
P. In 2008 there was even some volunteer to go to Mars with a one-way ticket. It was a mission as epic as that of the explorers of the Middle Ages who jumped into the ocean without knowing if they would return home. On a trip to Mars, even if the plan is to return, the chances of dying would be high.
R. That mission would be very complicated and there would be quite a lot of risk. There are risks going to the International Space Station, which is about 400 kilometers away, imagine going about 60 million kilometers. People who go have to consider the risks involved. All astronauts know this very well. That is why I have said before that my decision would depend on the objectives we had. I don’t think he was on a more or less suicidal mission to Mars, but he would take quite a few risks. You have to take them. We are pushing the limits of technology, science and human ability. It is necessary to do so in order to continue exploring and growing as humanity.
I think it’s a very real possibility that there are private companies resupplying lunar bases.
P. Astronaut Pedro Duque, former Minister of Science in Spain, stated in August: “If 400,000 people worked in the Apollo Program, now perhaps we would need 100,000 [para pisar Marte], because with electronics and miniaturization everything is more efficient, but I don’t see that there are 100,000 or 10,000 or 1,000. So, right now, we don’t know how long it’s going to take to get to Mars.” Apart from this first step to the Moon, is nobody seriously working on going to Mars right now?
R. What we’re doing now is totally connected to what it would take to go to Mars. If the question is how many people are specifically working only on the mission to Mars, the number is still not very high, but the entire Artemis Program, including what I do every day, is focused on developing the components that are going to be necessary to go to Mars. When I visualize my work, which is to integrate the components of the Orion spacecraft to go to the Moon, I think I am doing my bit to get to Mars. NASA’s goal is very clear: to get there.
P. How do you imagine extraterrestrial life?
R. It’s hard to imagine that the universe, as big as it is, doesn’t have the right conditions for life anywhere other than Earth. There must be alien life. What it’s like? I do not know. To imagine what aliens will be like we are limited by what we know now. Perhaps extraterrestrial life is in a way that we are not even capable of imagining.
P. How do you value the contribution of businessman Elon Musk to the space race?
R. Elon Musk and his company Space X, and other private companies, are contributing a lot to the development of technologies, for example, to make space travel cheaper, such as reusable rockets. Artemis’s strategy is to put the vision and infrastructure in place and then work with private companies to solve problems and develop new technologies to make it cheaper and more feasible to maintain that infrastructure on the Moon and, eventually, on Mars. . I think that, for example, what we have seen now in low Earth orbit, with private companies that are even talking about making their own space stations private, contributes a lot to the economy. I think that’s what we’re going to see on the Moon when we take the first steps to get back there. I think it is a very real possibility that there are private companies resupplying the space station. [en la órbita de la Luna] or even lunar bases. I hope that with the Artemis Program we will generate that new lunar economy and that we will see private companies do incredible things that we may not even think now are feasible.
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