In 2020, the planet Mars will pass "close" to Earth, just over 60 million kilometers. A phenomenon that occurs every two years or so. Space agencies do not intend to miss such a great opportunity. Four missions will be launched this year to learn more about the red planet, some with the ambition to detect traces of life, at least fossils. "No find on Mars convinces us that there is no life possible. The more we study Mars, the more we think that life may have been possible or may be possible in the basement," said Thursday on Europe 1 the astronaut Jean-François Clervoy.
For the French, who participated in three space flights aboard the American shuttle Atlantis between 1994 and 1999, "the first robots go there as a scout", but they will "one day" be replaced by "the human on the spot". The latter will then be "very efficient compared to the robot which does only what it was programmed for".
A call for candidates from NASA
2020 should therefore be a special year for the exploration of Mars. As a symbol, NASA, the American space agency, launched at the beginning of the week a call for candidates for its next promotion of astronauts. Women and men who should be part of the Artemis program of return to the Moon, planned from 2024, but also possibly of a next mission to Mars.
>> Find all of Nathalie Levy's interviews in replay and podcast here
In the meantime, the United States, which has already managed to place spacecraft on Mars in the past, will this year send a rover to search for traces of life as part of the Mars 2020 program. Place a rover on the red planet is also the ambition of the Russian-European mission. His machine should be able to dig two meters deep to explore the basement. "Where the European rover will dig two meters, this is where we think there is water," says Jean-François Clervoy.
"All will arrive at their destination in 2021"
Another mission: China will send a device into orbit to land a lander and make a small robot roll on the planet. More anecdotally, the United Arab Emirates will launch a satellite orbiting Mars, mainly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their creation.
"All of them will arrive at their destination the following year in 2021 because of the length of the trip," says La Cité de l'Espace scientific culture center on its website.
As for a possible future human life organized on Mars, Jean-François Clervoy wants to temper the ardor of dreamers: "Martian gravity is too weak to retain oxygen if we put it. So anyway, whatever conditions on Mars will require tight habitats. We can never live outdoors on Mars. "