MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump will be unable to send an astronaut to Mars as no equipment can solve this task today, and the first space mission to the Red Planet is expected no earlier than the mid-2030s, Russian cosmonautics historian Alexander Zheleznyakov told TASS on Tuesday.
Trump pledged in his January 20 inaugural speech that Washington would seek to send astronauts to Mars during his presidency.
"Although [US billionaire entrepreneur Elon] Musk says that he will send his first Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, it seems to me that such an expedition is absolutely unreal. It is primarily unreal for technical reasons. You can pour any amount of money into this effort, but it is impossible to create quickly the equipment capable of solving this task. That is why, I don’t think that the outlined task will be implemented during Trump’s presidency," the expert pointed out.
It is necessary to look into future changes in the US space program to get an idea about the real timeline of an expedition to Mars, he said.
"Now it is focused on the Moon - the Artemis program. If some changes occur and it is reshaped into some Martian-focused program, all the same, this can happen in the mid-2030s at best. In my view, this is quite an optimistic timeframe and the first crewed expedition to Mars won’t take place sooner than 2040," the cosmonautics historian stressed.
An international expedition seems to be the most feasible option, he argued.
"Given that such large-scale space projects are addressed by a group of countries rather than by one country, this will help facilitate the solution of economic tasks, and technologically it is easier when intellectuals from several countries join efforts to cope with a common task. This is always more advantageous and effective," the expert said.
The Russian cosmonautics historian said he hoped that precisely this approach to Mars exploration would take the upper hand.
"It is highly probable that this will be the case, but it is difficult to say what the structure of countries participating in this project will look like," he said.