Abstract
The human exploration of planetary bodies started with the Apollo missions to the Moon, which provided valuable lessons learned and experience for the future human exploration. Based on that, the design of hardware and operations need to further be developed to also overcome the new challenges, which arise when planning crewed missions to Mars and beyond. This chapter provides an overview about the environment and structure of the Red Planet and discusses the challenges on operations and hardware correlated to it. It further provides insights into the considerations regarding the hardware development which need to be investigated and defined before launching a crewed mission to Mars.
TopEnvironmental Conditions And Challenges On Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, which makes it Earth´s neighbouring planet in our solar system. One of the first observations humans could make about Mars was the planet´s reddish surface colour, which yielded the naming after the Roman god of war.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Exploration Radius: Maximum range which can be reached for investigations.
Gully: Trenches in the earth occurring from water flows, typically on steep terrain.
Orbiter: A spacecraft designed to operate in orbit around a planetary body.
Bio Signature: An indication for a biological process which could be linked to the presence of life forms.
Rover: A robotic vehicle, which can traverse rough terrain, in particular planetary surfaces.
Space Radiation: High-energy, charged particles present in the outer space environment.