The difficulties of a long-term spaceflight

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Ewald, Space Center Baden-Württemberg at the University of Stuttgart, Astronautics and Space Stations

“It is one thing to phone home, but quite another to fly there! The difficulties of long-term spaceflight”

Spaceflight faces two major difficulties: entering outer space is difficult because of the huge amounts of energy required to travel against the earth’s gravitational pull. And the distances to the intended destinations are vast. The Apollo missions are a walk in the park compared to a flight to Mars. Traveling to Mars would take two or more years and the earth would be too far away to function as a safe haven or to deliver supplies.
The research being undertaken at the Stuttgart Institute of Space Systems (IRS) is seeking to tackle these issues: regenerative survival systems help to reduce the takeoff weight on the way to Mars, electrical drives reduce the amount of time Mars astronauts are exposed to harmful radiation and finally, a targeted training program ensures that the astronauts maintain the ability to control the interplanetary flight even after months of travel.