Manned mission to Mars by end of next decade

There will be a manned research mission to Mars by the end of the next decade, according to Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis, the pioneering researcher with wide participation in NASA's most important space program.

In a speech at the Hellenic Parliament Foundation's "Stars in the Park" event on the theme of life in the universe, Krimigis spoke in detail about the conditions on the red planet and how inhospitable it is for human life. In addition to manned research missions, he expressed pessimism about permanent colonization due to the solar radiation that bombards the planet.

Another element that makes colonization scenarios difficult is "the distance that spacecraft have to travel, since they have to travel for 220 days to reach Mars."

Referring also to the issue of the colonization of Mars and the moon, University of Chicago and NASA Senior Planetary Scientist...