A tethered spacecraft will spin through increasingly hi-fidelity testing in a lab, in zero gravity, and eventually space, as part of the next project chosen by the Mars Society.
The Mars Society announced Tuesday that the Tethered Experiment for Mars inter-Planetary Operations (TEMPO 3 or TEMPO cubed) is the favorite proposal chosen from members’ ideas for the group’s next project. The project aims to supplement research on the feasibility of long-term space flight for humans. Mars Society president Robert Zubrin said that while space agencies around the world have “chosen to study the effects of zero gravity on humans with no end in sight,” his group seeks to develop technology to provide humans with gravity in space.
“Similar problems existed in the past, when aircrews flew at high altitude and low oxygen levels,” he said in a news announcement. “The technological solution of providing oxygen was frowned upon by aviation doctors in favor of trying to ‘negate the effect’ of the low oxygen through medication. Today, flight crews use oxygen at high altitudes, and we expect astronauts to travel with gravity.”
