space exploration

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez
Senior Media Relations Representative
Institute Communications

Keywords

Mars mission

White House space policy

2026 Mars landing

Georgia Tech

Christos Athanasiou

James Wray

Lincoln Hines

NASA

Artemis program

space exploration

international cooperation

Outer Space Treaty

space diplomacy

space security

lunar vs. Mars priorities

U.S.–China space relations

environmental impact on Mars

human spaceflight

Mars geology

Space Policy

go-researchnews

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Earth and Environment

Science and Technology

A Yellow Jacket on Mars

admin — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:21:39 +0000

A Yellow Jacket on Mars admin Wed, 07/31/2024 - 17:21

When the door to the Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, closed behind the crew members of the first Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission, Georgia Tech graduate Ross Brockwell was transported 152 million simulated miles to the Red Planet.

For the next 378 days, Brockwell, a 1999 civil engineering graduate, and three other crew members participated in the study designed to gain insights into the challenges of deep space exploration and its effects on human health and performance. The crew performed robotic operations, habitat maintenance, agricultural activities, and simulated surface walks in the "sandbox" with the assistance of virtual reality while enduring intentional resource limitations, isolation, and confinement.

Mars habitat

A structural engineer by day, he has always dreamed of space travel, and when a fellow Yellow Jacket alerted Brockwell to the application for the CHAPEA mission, he seized the opportunity.

"Sometimes, you get chances in your lifetime, and if I don't get a chance to actually go to Mars, if I can take this chance to help us get there as a planet, I'm honored," he said.

Once inside the 1,700-square-foot habitat, Brockwell's role as the CHAPEA mission's flight engineer focused on infrastructure, building design, and organizational leadership. As much as he learned from his tasks throughout the mission, like anticipating possible failure points and contingency planning, NASA learned even more through physical and cognitive monitoring.

"There was a lot of science, but some of the science was focused on us as the participants — our physiology and our performance — to make the mission as realistic as possible," he said.

Communication is a key element in space travel. Getting a message from Mars back to family and friends or mission control on Earth took 20 minutes on average for the crew inside the habitat, testing their ability to isolate. Without constant communication with the outside world, the crew fostered camaraderie through team activities and celebrated birthdays and holidays together. Brockwell's ingenuity wasn't limited to official tasks; he used a 3D printer to create a bracket for mounting a mini-basketball hoop.

Meals inside the habitat mirrored the shelf-stable food system of the International Space Station. While cultivated crops like tomatoes supplemented their main supply, Brockwell says there is a common misconception about astronaut food.

"I say with all sincerity, it was delicious." His favorite dish was a peanut chicken and wild rice mix, but the crew often got creative by mixing soups and proteins to create new dishes.

Other than the food, the biggest surprise to Brockwell was how quickly the mission was completed.

"I hoped and thought it would be that way, but we proved that a well-comprised crew can have a good time while doing this. There were a lot of clichéd expectations that there would be issues that we just didn't have. I think we demonstrated that a mission like this can be a huge success and an enjoyable, positive experience, not just something to be endured," he said.

Brockwell says that his time at Georgia Tech allowed him to learn the fundamentals of engineering principles and taught him to keep an open mind when exploring how things work. After receiving a master's degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology and completing the CHAPEA mission, he believes systems engineering can aid deep space exploration efforts for the next generation.

"Thinking about the effect of every component on every other component and the emergent properties from complex systems is crucial. I think that systems thinking is going to become increasingly important. Ecology and ecological thinking need to be part of it, especially for aerospace. If you're thinking about deep space exploration, an understanding of ecological principles and closed-loop systems will be key," he said.

At the end of the mission, Brockwell savored the sights and smells of Earth for the first time in over a year, saying that's what he missed the most. But if the opportunity arose to take the 152-million-mile flight to Mars, he'd be on the first ship out.

Subtitle

A Georgia Tech alum has emerged after living in a simulated Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for the past year.

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech alum has emerged after living in a simulated Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for the past year.

Summary

A Georgia Tech alum has emerged after living in a simulated Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for the past year.

Dateline

Wed, 07/31/2024 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

aerospace

life on mars

space exploration

deep space mission

NASA

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Science and Technology

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:16:49 +0000

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond admin Thu, 11/17/2022 - 11:16

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts — including Thom Orlando of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Physics, Feryal Özel of the School of Physics, and Frances Rivera-Hernández of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences — on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

Why go back to the Moon now? Thom Orlando examines exploration of the moon and the search for water as the first step to human exploration in our solar system.

How will being on the Moon help us learn about the universe? Feryal Özel explains how the moon can help us learn more about what makes a planet habitable and the search for life throughout the universe.

How will returning to the moon help us answer astrobiological questions and prepare us for human expeditions to Mars? Frances Rivera-Hernández reveals how exploration of the Moon will be a key step forward in our understanding of how life emerged on Earth — and about the search for past evidence of microbial life on Mars.

Check out the full feature in the Georgia Tech newsroom.

Summary sentence

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

Summary

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts — including Thom Orlando, Feryal Özel, and Frances Rivera-Hernández — on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

Dateline

Wed, 11/16/2022 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications
College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Associated importer

Keywords

cos-planetary

CMDI

School of Physics

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Artemis I

NASA

ARTEMIS

Earth's moon

The Moon

Lunar Explorations

Mars

space exploration

rocket launch

News room topics

Campus and Community

Mercury ID

663255

Source updated

Thu, 11/17/2022 - 09:19

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