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Chinese Piloted Mission to Mars

The biggest problem with manned to Mars is money. Technically feasible, but thus far politically and economically infeasible. There is currently no real motivation to support a large project like manned landing on Mars. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has listed space exploration as one of the pillars of China's development in the coming decades, and plans to complete a series of missions by the middle of this century, many of which involve manned operations. It is not difficult to see from the cross-planetary ambitions of the two major space powers of China and the United States missions to Mars, a new space race is underway.

Cheng Bin, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a US think tank, said: “The United States is obviously disturbed by the idea that China may surpass itself in all aspects. The American psychology is that it is important to maintain a leading position in space.” According to the report, after a century when China has fallen behind the West and is considered to have suffered humiliation, China has placed its national space program at the core of its efforts to seek a "great rejuvenation."

The weight of manned, life support systems, food, etc., will increase significantly compared to robotic tasks. This kind of complicated landing mission has only been tried during the moon landing, and the difficulty of landing on Mars will be greatly increased. First, the spacecraft needs to be accelerated very quickly to fly out of the earth's gravitational well, and then it needs to decelerate to reach the destination. In the past, the deceleration of Mars missions generally used rockets to slow down the spacecraft to orbit around Mars, and then use upper atmospheric drag to further slow down.

The first step at Mars is to decelerate the vehicle, which consumes a lot of fuel and can only be used when the load is not high. Manned missions may use air capture, that is, directly into the atmosphere and slow down to a suitable orbit in one step. As a result, the fuel efficiency increases, but the technical difficulty also greatly increases. First, an additional heat shield is needed (even so the total weight is lower than that of using a rocket to decelerate). Second, accurate software is needed to calculate the depth of entry into the atmosphere. If it is too deep, it will burn, and if it is too shallow, it will fly over. Although this technology is mature in theory, it has never been used in practice.

"Manned Mars Exploration" is a book published by China Aerospace Publishing House in 2010. The author is Karadeyev, a Russian. The book systematically introduces manned Mars exploration engineering technology, which has a good reference value for Chinese technicians to understand foreign developments and broaden their ideas. It is useful for manned space projects , lunar exploration projects and pre-research on Mars exploration currently being carried out in China. This book reflects the technical achievements of Soviet/Russian researchers in the field of deep space exploration, especially in the field of Mars exploration.

The nuclear-powered rocket mentioned by domestic experts is an important technical approach. In 2018, experts from the Beijing Institute of Aerospace Systems Engineering under the Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd.’s Institute of Launch Vehicle Technology published an article saying that through the use of nuclear thermal rocket engines, as well as 8 ground launches and 5 low-Earth orbit dockings, a manned spacecraft to land on Mars with a weight of about 800 tons could be built, and apart from space reactor technology, other technologies have not exceeded the current national aerospace technology level.

For the first time, on 08 November 2019 Chinese state media publicly reported the "plan for a manned spacecraft to fly to the Red Planet." China hopes to send "astronauts" to the moon first, as a preview of the next landing on Mars. According to the domestic media "China daily" (China Daily), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation stated that "the next step in the manned space program will be manned exploration of the moon, and (we will) establish a base on the moon. Carry out scientific operations to expand the livable places for humans, and gain experience and expertise in deep space exploration beyond the moon. The long-term goal is to send humans to Mars. "This is the first time that China's aerospace industry has publicly announced plans for a manned landing on Mars. . Western media are very interested in this publicity.

A manned landing would have to overcome several technical obstacles. The astronauts would require plenty of life resources, while more-powerful rockets and spacecraft would be required. However, that would not reduce the risk of muscle atrophy, loss of bone minerals and exposure to high levels of radiation during the long flight. It is estimated that a nuclear-powered rocket could reach 80,000 kilometers an hour, four times the speed of regular rockets, and shorten the journey time to one or two months. "However, it would be really hard to develop one. Landing a human on Mars in 2030 would be a really tough mission," Pang Zhihao, a spaceflight researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology, told Beijing News 19 July 2019.

The United States space agency has its sights set on a manned mission to Mars. This would be a huge step for human beings to set foot on another planet, and could have huge implications for the survival of our species and our destiny as an interplanetary, and then maybe interstellar, civilization. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced at a congressional testimony on 03 April 2019 a plan to put human to Mars by 2033 and would request more money to fund the ambitious plan. It came after NASA's new schedule to land American astronauts on the Moon by 2024, four years ahead of its previous schedule.

On September 18, the 2020 China Aerospace Conference was held in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Wang Xiaojun , dean of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology , mentioned the concept of manned Mars exploration in the future in his keynote speech. "We envision manned Mars exploration in the future in three steps." China’s journey to heaven has already begun. “We are willing to join hands with colleagues and partners at home and abroad to realize the dream of mankind going to deep space and walking on Mars.” Wang Xiaojun said.

The first step is robotic detection, including Mars sampling and return, site selection and inspection of Mars bases, and in-situ resource utilization system construction. The second step is the initial detection, including manned orbit detection, manned Mars landing detection, and Mars base construction. The third step is flight detection, including large-scale land-fire transportation fleet, large-scale development and utilization, and the comprehensive formation of a land-fire economic circle.

Wang Xiaojun said that Mars is the most promising planet in the solar system for human beings to migrate to. Mars exploration is of great significance to mankind. It is an important way for mankind to get out of the cradle of the earth, explore the origin of life, and expand living space.

At the Global Space Exploration (GLEX) conference taking place in St. Petersburg, Russia, China's launch vehicle design institute CALT on 16 June 2021 presented research on an architecture for transporting humans to Mars and eventually developing an "econosphere" featuring frequent visits and large-scale development on the Red Planet. No timeline for embarking on crewed Mars missions was mentioned.