Nasa outlines manned Mars vision

Nasa has released details of its strategy for sending a human crew to Mars within the next few decades.

 

The US space agency envisages despatching a "minimal" crew on a 30-month round trip to the Red Planet in a 400,000kg (880,000lb) spacecraft.

In January 2004, President George W Bush launched a programme for returning humans to the Moon by 2020 and - at an undetermined date - to Mars.

Notionally despatched in February 2031, the mission's journey from Earth to Mars would take six to seven months in a spacecraft powered by an advanced cryogenic fuel propulsion system.

The details are highly subject to change, and may not represent the way Nasa eventually chooses to go to the Red Planet.

The cargo lander and surface habitat would be sent to Mars separately, launched before the crew in December 2028 and January 2029.

According to the Nasa presentation seen by BBC News, astronauts could grow their own fruit and vegetables on the way.

Once there, astronauts could spend up to 16 months on the Martian surface, and would use nuclear energy to power their habitat.

The spacecraft itself would be equipped with so-called "closed-loop" life support systems, in which air and water would be recycled.

Details of the plan, which comes under Nasa's new Constellation programme, were presented at a meeting of Nasa's Lunar Exploration and Analysis Group.