Independent panel advises NASA against sending people to Mars

Apr 3, 2014 13:44 GMT  ·  By
Currently, a long-term mission to the Red Planet would pose too many health hazards for NASA astronauts, a new IOM report finds
   Currently, a long-term mission to the Red Planet would pose too many health hazards for NASA astronauts, a new IOM report finds

According to the conclusions of a new study conducted by an independent panel of medical experts, the risks entailed by a long-duration journey to Mars may be simply too high for NASA astronauts at this point. In other words, the agency does not yet have access to the technologies necessary to ensure the survival of its astronauts, if such a mission were to launch this year. 

Experts with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) argue in their paper that an 18-month mission to circle the Red Planet and return to Earth would expose NASA astronauts to health hazards well beyond the agency's currently accepted limits. The new report was released on Wednesday, April 2. These results hint at the need of extra ethical scrutiny for any such missions.

Fortunately for NASA, such long-duration missions are still at least a couple of decades away. Under the 2010 Space Policy Act enabled by US President Barack Obama, the agency needs to land astronauts on a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, and carry out at least a manned flyby of Mars by the 2030s.

In addition to the standard health risks, any astronauts undertaking such a mission would also be exposed to a level of unknown risk that cannot be characterized, or is very uncertain or unforeseeable. This refers to factors outside of cosmic rays and solar radiation, which may jeopardize or even destroy a spacecraft mid-flight without NASA being able to do anything about it.

“From terrestrial training and vehicle testing through launch, mission, and return, astronauts may face short- and long-term health consequences. NASA’s Human Research Program has identified more than 30 space-related health risks for astronauts, including vision impairment, behavioral health and performance effects, bone demineralization, muscle loss, and radiation exposure,” the report says.

“Long duration and exploration spaceflights – because they could involve longer times in space, greater distances from Earth, and exposure to uncertain environments – are unlikely to meet the existing health standards,” the document goes on to say. At this point, the longest space missions are those of astronauts aboard the International Space Station, who spend a maximum of 6 months in space.

However, a journey to Mars and back would require at least three times that amount of time, meaning that the amount of bone demineralization and muscle mass – to name but a few health risks – would quickly exceed acceptable limits. Radiation-induced cancer is also a high-degree probability for long-term space missions, the IOM report reveals, quoted by Mars Daily.

The independent panel also said that measures such as creating separate health standards for Martian missions, or relaxing the severity of existing standards, are not recommendable. “The committee finds relaxing (or liberalizing) current health standards to allow for specific long duration and exploration missions to be ethically unacceptable,” the report concludes.