The continued development of space flight technology has led to hundreds of manned space flights, 9 missions to land on the Moon, and an on-going effort to develop a permanent presence in space by building orbital space stations. After early space stations were built by the United States and the Soviet Union, an international consortium of nations has collaborated to build the International Space Station. The ISS was built by flying materials into space on dozens of missions using the reusable Space Shuttle vehicles developed by the United States. Astronauts from many nations around the world have flown on missions to the ISS. In recent years China has established their own Tiangong “Heavenly Palace” space station as they prepare to compete with Western countries in the race back to the Moon and on to Mars.
One of the key missions of space stations is to collect data on the health effects of long-duration space flight. Experiments are ongoing that will help future astronauts prepare for the long voyage from Earth to Mars and beyond to asteroids in the Asteroid Belt.
NASA is actively moving toward the Artemis missions to return humans to the Moon in order to establish bases there. The future Moon missions will prepare space travelers for the voyage to explore Mars. If humans are then able to establish the ability to remain in space for long periods of time, the further reaches of the solar system may become accessible. One potentially important resource is the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid belt contains vast amounts valuable metals and minerals that are essential to the global economy. These resources are rapidly being depleted on Earth as national economies around the world continue to grow. The asteroids also contain large amounts of water that can be converted to rocket fuel, as well as fulfilling a key ingredient to human survival. The asteroid belt could be a rich source for these important raw materials.
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