We have been thinking about a single path to Mars for decades. A group of scientists has just found a “shortcut”

If you travel to the Moon It’s quite a challengethe next step is only for the brave. To date, no one has traveled to Mars and even unmanned trips encounter multiple drawbacks. The first of them is the duration of the trip itself, since it can extend up to 8.5 months, one way. Almost nine months of space route, with all the inconveniences that may arise during it. That is why the shortcut that a team of scientists from the State University of Rio Janeiro has just proposed is so interesting. With it, the trip could be shortened to 153 days, round trip.

The key is in the asteroids. The authors of this study They have looked for shortcuts on the route to Mars in a quite interesting way: by noticing other travelers. After studying the trajectories of several asteroids, they have focused on those whose orbit intersects both that of Mars and that of Earth.

Until now, the trajectories are designed from the Earth’s orbital plane. If the orbital plane of one of these asteroids, specifically 2001 CA21, is also taken into account, new paths are opened, which were hidden from our planet. One of those paths, according to the study, would drastically reduce the duration of trips to Mars.

The asteroid is not a vehicle. It is important to note that this study does not propose using asteroids as a vehicle to Mars. They simply use them to open horizons to other trajectories. We from Earth see only a few “roads”, but asteroids like this have other options. By looking for connection points between the Earth’s orbital plane and that of these asteroids, it can be linked to these other routes, some of which turn out to be more direct.

Traditional tours. Normally, to travel from Earth to Mars something known as the Hohmann trajectory is used. This consists of beginning to make a turn around the Sun in our own elliptical orbit; to, when the time comes, take advantage of its gravitational pull and extend the ellipse to the Martian orbit. Broadly speaking, the ship does not go in a straight line to where the destination planet is, but rather travels to where it will be at a given time. It is not a short trip, but with it, by taking advantage of the gravitational pull, fuel consumption is greatly reduced.

Planned trajectory for ESA’s ExoMars

For this to be carried out, launch windows must be taken advantage of in which the Earth, the Sun and Mars are properly aligned. All this lengthens trips a lot.

A change of plane. The orbits of the different objects that revolve around each other are not all in the same plane. Each one has its own plan. Like a sheet of paper that is spinning. The Earth’s plane is not exactly the same as that of Marsbut very similar. That of the asteroid in this study, however, is very different and is much more inclined. That is why it allows us to open the window to new trajectories. As explained in Wired, It is something like opening a secondary window in a video game to see a scenario that we do not see in the main one.

Multiple launch windows. Taking into account the need to have a proper alignment between the Earth, the Sun and Mars, there are soon three interesting launch windows to travel to the red planet: 2027, 2029 and 2031. By studying them one by one, the authors of this study saw that it is in 2031 when the best alignment with the plane of the asteroid occurs and, therefore, a much faster opportunity for travel.

In the best case, Mars could be reached in 33 days. The complete trip would be 153 days, although in less optimistic cases it could be 226 days. Be that as it may, it is still much less than those 9 months, one way, that it takes now.

Other asteroids. Although the study has been carried out with specific data from a single asteroid, these scientists believe that, in reality, the orbital planes of others could be taken whose trajectories also intersect with Earth and Mars. Basically, the key is to look outside the box. Or, much more literally, out of shot. There are many interesting routes out there.

More powerful propulsion systems. All this sounds beautiful, but there is a big drawback that we must take into account. And, in order to carry out this process, much more energy is needed. Therefore, it would be necessary to resort to practically unfeasible quantities of fuel or to new, more powerful propulsion systems. Today this is not possible, so advances in this regard should go in parallel with the development of advances in propulsion systems. Many examples are already being investigated, such as the use of nuclear energy. Even has been proposed use lasers, although it is a project that is very much in its infancy.

There is still a long way to go, never better said, but if the future is in these short and alternative trajectories it must also be in new propulsion systems that leave traditional ones behind.

Image | NASA | THAT

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