A novel concept for a multiplanetary crewed mission to Mars and Ceres

A novel concept for a multiplanetary crewed mission to Mars and Ceres

For NASA, sending a crewed mission to Mars has been the long-term goal for over two decades. China has joined the club in recent years, with plans to send crewed missions to the red planet ahead of NASA. In both cases, the plans envision a stepping stone approach, using habitats and infrastructure in cis-lunar space to ensure that regular missions can be possible someday. They also envision how regular missions to Mars could lead to permanent ha…

A Novel Concept for a Multiplanetary Crewed Mission to Mars and Ceres

In a recent paper, a team of commercial space engineers proposed a Human-Crewed Interplanetary Transport Architecture (HUCITAR) to explore Mars and Ceres in a single journey. Their ambitious plan envisions six astronauts spending 4 years and seven months exploring these bodies, which could be ready to launch by 2035.