Want Humans on Mars? Start With a Martian Space Station.
Lockheed Martin just announced an audacious concept to put humans in orbit around Mars by 2028. Here’s how it would work.
A major aerospace company just jumped into the Mars fray: Lockheed Martin has announced its plans for getting humans to the red planet by 2028. Rather than going right to the surface, this scheme would put a spacecraft in Mars orbit that would do a solid impression of the International Space Station.
The concept—unveiled on May 18 at the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Washington, D.C.—is the latest effort to envision a doable, cost-effective Mars mission for NASA, which is pushing forward on its agency-wide Journey to Mars initiative.
“What we’re presenting is a vision,” Wanda Sigur, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of civil space projects, said during the announcement. It’s not boots on Mars,
