First person on Mars likely to be a woman: NASA

Why in news?

• NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the first person on Mars is ‘likely to be a woman’.
• The NASA administrator did not identify a specific person but said women are at the forefront of the agency’s upcoming plans.
• NASA will also have its first all-female spacewalk at the end of the month, when astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will get to float around in space. According to the US space agency, the spacewalk will last about seven hours.

What to know?

• Both McClain and Koch were part of the 2013 astronaut class, half of which were women.
• They came from the second largest applicant pool NASA has ever received — more than 6,100.
• The most recent class of flight directors was also 50 per cent women, NASA said.
• NASA has come a long way since 1978, when the first six women joined NASA’s astronaut corps.
• Currently, women comprise 34 per cent of its active astronauts, according to the agency.
• Bridenstine said, NASA is committed to making sure we have a broad and diverse set of talent and we are looking forward to the first woman on the moon.

Upcoming mars missions: –

• On June 10, 2018, Opportunity rover fell silent, leaving Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory mission with six orbiters surveying the planet: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbiter Mission, MAVEN, and the Trace Gas Orbiter, which have contributed massive amounts of information about Mars.
• The stationary lander InSight is investigating the deep interior of Mars.
• No sample return missions have been attempted for Mars and an attempted return mission for Mars’ moon Phobos (Fobos-Grunt) failed in 2011.
• Five more missions are in the late stages of development and fabrication, and will be launched between 2020 and 2021.
• These include the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover by Russia and ESA, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, the 2020 Chinese Mars Mission, the Hope Mars Mission by Saudi Arabia, and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission 2.

(Space)(newsonair)

Pic courtesy:India Today