The Martian: Is A Manned Mission To Mars Possible?

Video: With The Martian Extended Edition out today on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, we wanted to share this behind-the-scenes look at what NASA did on its trip to Mars with the Curiosity rover, including measuring whether the interstellar radiation between planets would be fatal to humans. Good news: NASA thinks that a manned mission to Mars is possible, even though it’ll take a lot of work…

This little featurette is from NASA’s Journey to Mars — a bonus on The Martian Extended Edition‘s Blu-ray — and talks about the work that has to be done to make sure a manned mission to Mars wouldn’t kill the astronauts undertaking it. The Curiosity mission carried a small device called the Radiation Assessment Detector, part of a suite of testing equipment that logged data all the way from the mission’s Earth launch to the surface of Mars.

Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says it’s doable. “You could feasibly do a human mission from Earth to Mars. The radiation dose is safe for a human’s lifetime — but we still need to protect them at some level. The good news is, we think it’s a solvable problem. ”

The Martian Extended Edition Lands on Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray on Wednesday 24 August.



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