Women and failures are the best ways to conquer space

Human expeditions to Mars and other planets will be extremely resource-intensive, and the food and other materials required to support the crew for many years will become a decisive factor in the mission’s success. Therefore, according to a study by the European Space Agency, future crews may only consist of women because they are more “efficient”. Female astronauts will likely need less water, oxygen and carbon dioxide, consume less energy, take up less space and generate less heat than their male counterparts.

“In space, failure is an option for development, and often it is the only option for development”, – one can read in the May issue of the science journal “Nature”. The cosmos is complex, requiring precision, and those who want to explore it should expect to fail before they succeed. Engineering requires constant iteration: designing machines and testing them against as many possible scenarios where something could go wrong. This is evidenced by the recent tests of the Starship rocket and the landing on the moon of a robotic mission by Ispace Inc.

Meanwhile, NASA’s ambitious planetary research program has come to a head due to delays and budget overruns. For example, the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission –an attempt to deliver Martian rocks to Earth – needs an additional $250 million. The very costly MSR has to be implemented and affects other agency projects. NASA’s second flagship project is now Europa Clipper, a mission to study Europa, one of Jupiter’s satellites.