Space tourism is no longer a dream! Are humans ready to return to the moon and land on Mars?

Beijing, April 13, April 201KLOC-0/April 7, the 65th UN General Assembly passed a resolution to designate April 12 as the International Manned Space Day to celebrate the beginning of the human space age.

The history of manned space flight can be divided into several stages. What is the particularity of the manned space activities of Space Exploration Technology Company a few days ago? When is it possible to return to the moon and land on Mars?

The history of manned space flight can be divided into several stages.

Yang Yuguang, a researcher at the Second Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology and vice chairman of the Space Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation, said that the history of human manned space flight can be roughly divided into five stages.

The first-class manned spacecraft mainly include the Soviet "Oriental" series spacecraft and the American "Mercury" series spacecraft. /KOOC-0/96/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/2 At 9: 07 on April, at the Baikonur space launch site in Kazakhstan, Soviet astronaut Gagarin traveled into space in the "Oriental/KOOC-0/"spacecraft, which lasted/KOOC-0/hour for 48 minutes and arrived at/KOOC-0/0:. It has opened up a new way for human space exploration. But in the first stage, the manned spacecraft can only carry 1 astronaut at a time.

In the second stage, the Soviet Union and the United States developed the Ascension series spacecraft and Gemini series spacecraft respectively. The "Ascension 1" spacecraft has achieved multi-person orbit for the first time and can carry three astronauts at a time. However, three astronauts can only wear ordinary clothes instead of spacesuits to squeeze into the narrow cockpit, and their carrying capacity is not significantly better than that of the first generation manned spacecraft. "Ascension 2" realized the first human extravehicular activity by inflating the airlock. At present, American manned space technology far exceeds that of the Soviet Union.

The third generation manned spacecraft includes the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet Union and the Apollo spacecraft of the United States. Soyuz consists of three cabins, which can take up to three people. Today, Soyuz is still in service Apollo in the United States is mainly used for landing on the moon.

In the fourth stage, the United States and the Soviet Union chose different development directions. The United States focused on reusable spacecraft and entered the space shuttle era. However, there were two major accidents in the American space shuttle, 14 astronauts were killed, and the United States finally gave up the space shuttle program. In the same period, after the failure of landing on the moon, the Soviet Union focused on the salute of the space station.

After 1990s, it entered the fifth stage, namely the era of the International Space Station. The United States, the Russian Federation and China successively built the International Space Station. To this day, the International Space Station is still in orbit.

What is the particularity of the manned space activities of Space Exploration Technology Company these days?

On the morning of the 8th local time, four passengers took off from Florida and entered the International Space Station on the manned spacecraft of Space Exploration Technology Company.

Space tourism is a game for the rich. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic once conducted suborbital space tourism, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while orbital space tourism cost tens of millions of dollars. American billionaire Tito was the first paid space tourist. Since Tito, Russia has made many paid space trips with Soyuz spacecraft, but there is only one tourist at a time, and it is not a purely commercial activity.

Yang Yuguang said that the activities of Space Exploration Technology Company are purely commercial tourism, and there are four passengers on board. Except that the pilot must be a professional astronaut with rich space experience, the other three are rich people who have never experienced space flight. The spaceship will visit the International Space Station. These four passengers will stay in space for 8 days and conduct some scientific research and experiments in space.

When is it possible to return to the moon and land on Mars?

America's plan to return to the moon has undergone many changes. During the Bush administration, the United States made a plan to return to the moon first and then land on Mars. During the Obama administration, the plan to return to the moon was cancelled, with the focus on landing on Mars; During the Trump administration, the manned moon landing program, the "Al themis" program, was resumed. Although there are uncertainties, the plan of the United States to return to the moon has been put on the agenda, and the heavy launch vehicle SLS for spacecraft launch is now in place at Kennedy Space Center. Russia also expressed its hope to develop spacecraft and rockets for landing on the moon. At present, Europe, Japan and other countries and regions take "Al themis" program as the main way to participate in moon landing activities.

The head of China Space System has expressed China's desire for manned landing on the moon on many occasions, and China has been conducting key technology research and scheme deepening demonstration. Yang Yuguang said that it was only a matter of time before Chinese astronauts walked on the moon.

Regarding manned exploration of Mars, the United States hopes to land on Mars around 2040, but it is only a wish at present. There are still many key technical problems to be solved when human beings land on Mars, and the more difficult problem is the capital, because the capital investment to and from Mars may exceed the total investment of the International Space Station.

Yang Yuguang said that whether humans can land on Mars around 2040 depends not only on technological development, but also on the decision-making and capital situation of various countries.

Producer: Liang Yue