{"id":19382,"date":"2016-05-18T19:23:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T11:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-chief-agrees-with-author-of-the-martian-the-first-mars-crews-will-steer-robots-from-orbit\/"},"modified":"2016-05-18T19:23:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T11:23:49","slug":"nasas-chief-agrees-with-author-of-the-martian-the-first-mars-crews-will-steer-robots-from-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-chief-agrees-with-author-of-the-martian-the-first-mars-crews-will-steer-robots-from-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s chief agrees with author of \u2018The Martian\u2019: The first Mars crews will steer robots from orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
Is this how the first human missions to Mars will unfold? NASA\u2019s chief favors an approach for extended operations from Martian orbit, rather than starting out with a crew landing on the surface. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first humans to reach Mars almost certainly won\u2019t go down to the surface, but will manage fleets of rovers from Martian orbit.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the view of Andy Weir, the author behind a wildly popular space saga titled \u201cThe Martian.\u201d But it\u2019s also the view of NASA\u2019s administrator, Charles Bolden, and lots of other mission planners. NASA\u2019s current plan calls for the first crews to set up shop around Mars and its moons in the 2030s.<\/p>\n

The landing vs. orbiting issue came up today during a space-themed session at Transformers, a daylong conference organized by The Washington Post in the nation\u2019s capital. Weir\u2019s novel (and the movie it inspired) focuses on an astronaut left behind on the Red Planet\u2019s surface, but the engineer-turned-author said the initial flights to Mars would probably follow a safer storyline.<\/p>\n

He noted that robotic missions to Mars, such as the ones involving NASA\u2019s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, require a long latency period between sending commands and getting back the results coming out of those commands. That\u2019s due to the distance between the rovers and their controllers on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest benefit to having an astronaut on the surface, in terms of the science, is that that astronaut has a brain,\u201d Weir said. \u201cAn astronaut doesn\u2019t have a five- to 20-minute latency in communicating what he or she wants to do on the surface of Mars. So the very first humans-to-Mars-area mission, I suspect, will be a whole bunch of rovers on the surface of Mars, and humans in orbit controlling them. What do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy\u2019s absolutely right,\u201d Bolden replied. He said NASA\u2019s mission planners are generally reluctant to talk about the precise architecture of human missions to Mars, \u201cbecause you get in trouble, to be quite honest.\u201d But he acknowledged that the rovers-first approach made sense.<\/p>\n