Mars race

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This article is about space competition. For the 2007 TV miniseries, see Race to Mars. For a race of people on Mars, see Martian.

The Mars race,[1] race to Mars[2][3] or race for Mars[4] is the competitive environment between various national space agencies, "New Space" and aerospace manufacturers involving crewed missions to Mars, land on Mars, or set a crewed base there. Some of these efforts are part of a greater Mars colonization vision, while others are for glory (being first), or scientific endeavours. Some of this competitiveness is part of the New Space race.

Rivalries[edit]

The race to Mars involves competition between manufacturers and nations.[5] NASA has demurred in a potential rivalry with SpaceX or other manufacturers in any possible race to be first to Mars. It instead sees synergies in possible cooperation with such entities.[6] However, politicians may push NASA into competition with private entities such as Boeing and SpaceX in getting humans to Mars.[7] Former president Donald Trump has planned for NASA to reach Mars in the 2030s.[2][8][9]

Boeing has stated that one of its rockets will lead to the first crewed expedition to Mars, before SpaceX or others will land a crewed mission. Boeing is the primary contractor on the U.S. Space Launch System (SLS) NASA rocket program that has the ultimate goal of a crewed Mars mission. SpaceX has declined to state that it is a race, or that it needs to race Boeing.[10][11][12][13]

Blue Origin has stated that with its New Armstrong and New Glenn rockets, it may be attempting missions to Mars, head-to-head with the SpaceX Starship.[14][15] This may result in commercial competition going to Mars.[16]

Virgin Galactic has expressed interest in future service to/on Mars.[17][18][19][20][21]

In 2019, SpaceX started to develop their own hardware, the Starship with initial launches planned for the early 2020s, followed by a cargo mission to Mars planned for 2027 and a crewed Mars mission in 2029 with the goal of setting up a propellant depot and the beginnings of a Mars base.[22][23] As of 2024, Starship has achieved orbit in a partially successful flight test.[24]

Inspiration Mars planned a crewed flyby of Mars using third party hardware but has been inactive since 2015.

It is widely thought that NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) are in a tacit race to put humans onto Mars. China is projected to have a crewed follow-up to 2020s robotic exploration project sometime after that; while NASA has a timeline of getting there in the 2030s.[25][26][27][28]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • NBC News (21 May 2023), The Race to Mars, Meet the Press, NBC, cQl9f1FvgB4 on YouTube

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cheryl Werber (18 September 2016). "Could NASA Lose Mars Race to SpaceX?". CDA News. Archived from the original on 22 May 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  2. ^ a b Alexis Christoforous (13 March 2017). "Here's how you can profit from the race to Mars". Yahoo Finance.
  3. ^ "Game On! Boeing Wants to Beat SpaceX in the Race to Mars". Nature World News. 6 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Elon Musk and a Boeing Rocket Are in a Race for Mars". The Kindland. 5 October 2016.
  5. ^ Ben Rosen (10 October 2016). "Did Boeing's CEO just kick off a billionaires' space race?". Christian Science Monitor.
  6. ^ Irene Klotz (1 November 2016). "NASA: We're Not Racing SpaceX to Mars". Seeker. Space.com.
  7. ^ Emily Marks (20 October 2016). "NASA Joins SpaceX And Boeing On The Race To Mars". University Herald.
  8. ^ Darlene Superville (21 March 2017). "Trump Wants to Send Humans to Mars". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press.
  9. ^ Ron Duwell (22 March 2017). "NASA's new goal of getting to Mars by 2033 set by President Donald Trump". TechnoBuffalo. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  10. ^ Julie Johnsson (4 October 2016). "Boeing CEO Vows to Beat Musk to Mars". Bloomberg.
  11. ^ Eric Berger (5 October 2016). "Boeing CEO jabs SpaceX, says Mars explorers will ride his rocket". Ars Technica.
  12. ^ Jamie Condliffe (5 October 2016). "The 21st-Century Space Race: Will Boeing or SpaceX Be First to Mars?". MIT Technology Review.
  13. ^ Emily Marks (14 October 2016). "Boeing May Beat SpaceX To Mars And Elon Musk Is Fine With It". University Herald.
  14. ^ Alan Boyle (27 September 2016). "Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture sets its sights on trips to Mars and the moon". Yahoo News.
  15. ^ Nick Stockton (13 September 2016). "Jeff Bezos' New Rocket Could Send The First People To Mars". Wired.
  16. ^ Doug Mohney (29 September 2016). "SpaceX and Blue Origin Talk Seriously Going to Mars". Tech Zone 360.
  17. ^ Danica Lo (3 October 2016). "Richard Branson Wants to Build Hotels in Space". FoodAndWine.com.
  18. ^ Miriam Kramer; Jessica Plautz (2015-11-06). "Sir Richard Branson wants to colonize Mars, but he's willing to share". Mashable.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "Richard Branson on space travel: "I'm determined to start a population on Mars"". CBS News. 18 September 2012.
  20. ^ Henry, Caleb (24 October 2019). "Virgin Orbit to add extra rocket stage to LauncherOne for interplanetary missions". SpaceNews. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  21. ^ O'Callaghan, Jonathan (9 October 2019). "Virgin Orbit Is Planning An Ambitious Mission To Mars In 2022". Forbes. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  22. ^ spacexcmsadmin (2016-09-20). "Mars". SpaceX. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  23. ^ Torchinsky, Rina (17 March 2022). "Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029". NPR.
  24. ^ "Starship's Third Flight Test". SpaceX. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  25. ^ Chris Cooper; Kiyotaka Matsuda (29 November 2016). "The U.S. and China Are Fighting Over Mars, but Japan May Win the Space Race". Bloomberg.
  26. ^ Jacob Brogan (6 April 2017). "What Slate Readers Think About the New Space Race". Slate.com.
  27. ^ Are We Losing the Space Race to China?. Space Subcommittee Hearing. United States House of Representatives. 27 September 2016.
  28. ^ Clay Dillow (28 March 2017). "China's secret plan to crush SpaceX and the US space program". CNBC.
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