To w. Astronauts him up escape is climbing a volcano in lands the rocky and the Canary Islands. He returned from his long Space Mission just a few weeks ago the space agency sent the astronauts here for training the terrain is what is called a planetary analog very similar to the landscape on mars. The. The french astronauts hes amassed mission as the apex of his career the 6 and a half months he spent on the International Space station i s s were 3rd. Step towards potentially being part of the crew lifting off of the red planet one day. Humans have to adapt to space travel with closed recycling loops total autonomy drive technologies and the use of robots and novel materials the ideas is pave the way for future missions and puts a journey to mars into the realm of the imaginable. Of. A a. World. Back in november 26th seen at the Baikonur Space boards temperatures have fallen to minus 28 degrees celsius. And. The rocket is being driven to the launch pad a pretty routine occurrence in the Space Business preparations for the 1992nd soyuz launch. But for to mother scale this mission is the 1st. After 2 and a half years of intensive training he is about to take a seat in the small capsule 40 meters above the ground. In. These are his last moments on earth moments during which anticipation turns into intense concentration. Up there. He joins russian cosmonauts are there enough with skiing and american Peggy Whitson as they said. For the International Space station i s s. He is the only newcomer on expedition 5051. 00. Maximum concentration youre taking off on a rocket but it wasnt quite clear to me what that meant your tethered to a Ballistic Missile in the so use your fasten down everywhere only your arms can interact with the control panel otherwise you feel really tied up in the rocket is vibrating in the belching smoke below you can feel. Her. Going. On november 17th at 2120 sharp the soyuz rocket lifts off the ground. Its a 1000 tons of fuel generating 20000000 horsepower the thrust in the 8 minutes and send phase is enormous. Tension is high for the 1st 10 minutes after the launch this is the most dangerous time. The earth quickly begins to look like a sphere as the various stages of the launch to bring the capsule up to its orbital speed 28000 Kilometers Per Hour. Days huddled together in the so you are nightmare for anyone who is claustrophobic if youre sitting in a kind of cannonball it catapulted 400 kilometers into orbit around the earth. But human strength is to be able to see that is normal otherwise youd go crazy. After orbiting the earth 30 times in 2 days the. Crew has so muscles but now the eye assess is in sight. It takes more than 2 hours of intricate maneuvering for the capsule to dock on to the space station. Theres relief in the Mission Control center in moscow where the astronauts relatives are watching the whole operation live. At the end of openness and are there peggy and tomorrow welcomed by the 3 crewmembers who arrived a month earlier. The orbiting Research Facility has been continuously manned since the early 2000 its where 400 kilometers above the earth they are preparing for the Interplanetary Missions of the future. This is a 900 cubic metre labyrinth with everything arranged in a manner as precise as it is complex. Its a high tickler barratry where microgravity turns every notion of up and down on its head. Newcomers have to quickly learn how to find their way around. When you suddenly start floating around in weightlessness you can feel your own disorientation your organs of balance are out of kilter everything is distorted. Your stomach feels full because everything in it is clouding. Your head hurts it feels bloated because of the High Pressure and your. These are the 1st symptoms but they disappear very quickly. At least thats how it was with me so i was very lucky. Humans are not adapted to life in space our anatomy and metabolism are geared to earthly gravity. Without gravity the blood migrates from the low it to the other parts of the body creating a vessel you know the pressure that can damage the organs this phenomenon is still an obstacle to long term missions. In france the c. And e. F. Snatch will center for space studies is looking closely at the issue. Professor felipe albay and to marcus kay have devised a new experiment for the ios s. Albans headed in the ember of Research Programs at the institute of space medicine and physiology all made a is here volunteers wrapped in impermeable fabric are immersed in water filled ted says this socalled dry immersion is currently the primary method available for studying the effects of microgravity on the human body down a. System warm or younger seemingly its a good way of simulating the effects of microgravity on fluid transport in the 1st 3 hours of the conditions in space that reproduced exactly. Stagnation in the blood vessels the problem with the brain the eyes and the 1st this shows the devastating symptoms that can occur when bodily fluids move upwards which is the case in space. We now know that over pressure can also cause the vessel walls to age as much in 6 months in space as in 30 years for a normal person on earth. The nasa astronauts didnt find that funny at all theyre not really jokesters anymore just that it wouldnt be you can make up for 6 months but we dont know if anything beyond that is reversible. Me i played. During the 6 months on the i assess the crew was confronted with another central problem of long term flights a psychological one. That does form a cosmonauts cannot be put delicate thing even in space flight circles but delta is considered an extraterrestrial hes a legend who has lived in space longer than anyone else so far. On 5 Space Missions he managed a total of 879. 00 days of weightlessness thats 2 and a half years in other words the estimated duration of a journey to mars small child is regrettable 12 years millard ever be possible for humans to live and work in outer space. Over the last 50 years countless experiments have been carried out and more experience has been gained with each one it was almost in use with human organism has become more resistant to the aggressive conditions in space for some us war but the crew member psychological compatibility is the greatest challenge or. The ideal crew are caused by not doesnt exist and never will were not robots. When you want to do what will do to us that we too will you cant just slam the door between yourself and your colleagues and what if the crew is damaged to find a common language and make compromises brings. Down is exactly the right word of this case. Over 400. 00 astronauts have now been on all. In the space station since the 1st one was launched in 1971 the personal selection criteria for long term flights have been honed. But no one knows yes what a group flying 2 months would ideally look like. While living our must see for apollo view look for we fly to mars we must learn to survive in space for the long term its easiest if we do it close to the earth which is why the ai s. S. Is a stage on the way. Its not just a research station divorced from the mars project. A good 50 percent of what happens on the i s s is about sending people even further into space. Where you dont preen wont call it on a spice. Even further into space today everyone thinks of months when they hear that. Some parts of the earths share features with the red planet. Decades of intensive volcanic activity on the ends of russia in the Canary Islands have given it a geology that is similar to that of minus. The geologist shy of one carol is often drawn to the island as an expert on the red planet he advises nasa. Hes also an important figure in the Months Society and International Association of scientists engineers astronauts and aerospace officials. All of them advocates a journey to mine. I thought yes you know people are not going to mars reflects our profound urge to explore its in our genes let me spire the discovery of america and other planets. And we also want to find out about the origin of life. It was a very miracle that only happened on earth with a chance if you. In a 1000000000 years or was it a process that happens naturally i know that there was liquid water on mars in the past because weve seen the remains of lakes i recall it is still dark but see i think one shouldnt live forever in there too like maybe we can find the missing link between inanimate mineral matter and the 1st selves never let out of the miracle of life come about. Mars may give us the answer but it cannot theres a lot of it. Is undoubtedly fascinating but can we really sent people how is that supposed to work. That situation fit throughout the m. R. I. As it is about 227000000 kilometers from the sun. Whereas the earth years 150000000 almost orbit the sun so the path to mars isnt a Straight Line but a curve like an orbit. Of mars is hundreds of millions of kilometers away 200 times as far as the moon these are completely different dimensions sit on. The most optimistic forecast estimates the voyage to mars and back will take about 640. 00 days 6 months with the outbound flights a month on site and 15 months home. Where ship out to travel to mars we need of course a rocket conventional chemical propulsion engines are pretty advanced the fuel is burned with oxygen to give maximum thrust this will enable us to fly to mars in 6 months. In what 5. To chemical Rocket Propulsion projects are currently making advances nasa space launch system or s. L. S. Its a deep space launch vehicle with several propulsion stages that could transport 4 people and 50 tons of payload to mars. The space x. Company with its basilan musk is behind the 2nd project with typical optimism musk instead that 2024 will be the year the colonizing mars because. The company is working on a reusable launch vehicle and space ship that can transport a dozen astronauts into space at one go the way the various rocket parts can be reused or recycled is revolutionary about as far as Propulsion Technology for conquering distant planets is concerned the real revolution is taking place elsewhere. Houston engineers from the Ad Astra Rocket Company are testing their propulsion system. Was the project seems like something out of science fiction. But one of its underlying technologies is already well known the plasma propulsion engine. Plasma thrusters have been around for some years now in contrast to conventional combustion engines they work by heating and i know its gas to ultra high temperatures and then accelerating its i know through an electroMagnetic Field. The speed at the outlet nozzle reaches 180000 Kilometers Per Hour and ensures a continuous constant thrust. This type of drive is already being used for some probes and satellites however it cant generate the power needed to propel a space ship. But this man is trying. The change that was. Franklin chang diaz is a physicist and as to know what has been involved with more Space Missions than anyone else. You flew on the u. S. Space shuttle 7 times for 40 years he has been working on the ideal propulsion system. In 2015 that his calculations showed it would be possible to reach mars in 39 days. That number is correct. You can do this if you have a lot of power. And thats the thing thats where the Nuclear Electric Propulsion comes into play. Chante is calculations involve coupling a Small Nuclear reactor to plasma engine to generate the necessary electrical power. My interest. Was stored developing a rocket which had all the nice features of the electric blast more rockets. Low power rockets but they had a lot a lot of power and essentially building the equivalent of the Diesel Engine of space something that will allow you to really move heavy massive pieces of equipment from point a to point b. Jan diaz says the reactor which generate the Electrical Energy needed for the past my engine this would offer the autonomy that no chemical drive would guarantee. Chemical propulsion thrusters could still be used to launch and guide the spaceship into orbit where plasma Engine Running on Nuclear Power with then take over that. This would considerably shorten the flight. These are missions that are Game Changing and that changes the chemistry of the me of the mission the changes the architecture it reduces a great deal of the issues of human survivability all the problems that we have with physiology with the conditioning of the human body all of those things begin to get less and less difficult. Time is a crucial factor. Shaving a few months off the trip means less food would be needed as well as reducing the harmful physiological effects of long spaceflight. Puts months with 3. Point 40 like all other things variable we want to minimize as the flight duration it has to be as short as possible so that we need as little logistics and as few supplies as possible because we have to recycle more to achieve this even more than we do at the station at the moment theres still a lot to do in terms of Waste Management will have to grow our own lettuce will have to go without a lot of things but that wont stop us from traveling to mars. Last. Chance have been cultivated on the ice as for some years now including by the members of the expedition 5051 leg and above all. The program has been so popular with the astronauts that the researchers did away with an agenda and left the care of the plants to their discretion. Ok end of the shuttle siss simpson said on our own let us made us happy. Green spot just for us it is scarce and cherished and cared for only especially by peggy. But we were all happy about it we watched ourselves grow and on friday evening we ate it it was a morsel of life that took on a very special meaning to our. Joy a mass that directs the fates you program at mass is Kennedy Space center. This is a fairly classical project to find out how to grow plants in space and thus ensure the astronauts food selfsufficiency at some point the joy of nasa scientist carly trained smith have quickly realized that gardening in space has more than just nutritional advantages. Between 20152016 american scott kelly spent over a year with Russian Mission on the ice a. Transmitter observed that kelly constant he sent photos and tweets of his plan. Kelly board the International Space station. I want to go and check on my. Flowers little girl here in the. Columbus module. So scott when he took care of the flowers was very important for him to take ownership of the flowers in and i could tell he really enjoyed it because it through his twitter feed hey our plants arent looking too good would be a problem on mars to my space flowers on the rebound and finally when you got the 1st bloom how does your garden grow heres my space flower you took this flower out of veggie and took it all around spacestation he took it to the coop a lot they had a centerpiece for dinner and most telling of all of to me is what i saw scott in the show with their 300 days in space and lo and behold scotts holding his space foreign to me that tell. Everything how important it is to both be sure and scott. I think for psychological for morale relaxation and then of course food you know having those fresh food is going to be very important having that connection back to earth having that little piece of nature in those very. You know hostile environment where theres a lot about all the plastics and wires running around and theres this piece of earth that they can smell they can touch and finally eat i think it means a lot to them in when we go to mars when the earth is getting smaller and smaller and smaller its going to be even more important to have that piece of earth have that reminder of home the smell of home and then the taste of home to remind them where they come from. On board the i s s how soon is only present. Seen from the cooper penny remick montijo the us fills the sky. Biscay never tires of watching the fascinating spectacle. But can he ready also imagine a time when our planet will no longer be visible from his spaceship. Somehow even though just while there throughout history we have never lost sight of the earth well just once for a moment when the apollo crew orbited the moon on a mars Mission Earth will be lost in the distance at some point you want to even feel any progress it will be like hanging in between the stars that will be hard to picture when humans fly to mars the great unknown will be psychological to critic all the elements. To man. Leaves the station for the 1st time on the 13th of january 2017 its his 1st spacewalk. This come from choice these are the spacesuit this one is mine and its in my size. Suit is like a real mini spacecraft equipped with all systems needed for autonomous survival in the floyd of space. Communication devices protection against the vacuum and the heat including the gold visor and integrated computer control functions are attached to the chest on the. Upper the rest is in the backpack of this is very bulky and heavy but its the price you pay for a walk in space. 2 hours before the Pressure Chamber opens tomorrow and commander shane kimbra already. Know the pressure. So that small amount of air so inquest gets dumped overboard it gets expelled out into space that at 1300 hours the hatches finally open. The 1st impression is a feeling of heat and glistening lights. To close their gold visors to protect themselves from the suns rays. Their movements are not as certain as they were in the training pool it takes a few moments to get used to this new environment. Then the Mission Begins replacing the space stations solar panels. The 2 have finished