@PopularMechanics _ April 2019 63THE RETIREMENT
ROUND TRIP:
N/A
A cruise to Jupiter—about as far as it’s reasonable to
imagine going, at this point—takes two to three years
on a direct trajectory from Earth. But on the way,
you’ll want to visit objects in the asteroid belt: Ceres,
which makes up a quarter of the belt’s mass and was
once considered a planet; Vesta, dominated by a crater
that contains a 13-mile-high peak; and 16 Psyche, the
largest metallic asteroid. Then on to Jupiter, at which
point you’ll hop from moon to moon—we know of
nearly 80—using the gravity of each to swing your ship
toward the next destination. On Io, strong gravitational
forces from Jupiter and other Jovian moons heat
the interior, manifesting in the form of volcanoes—
hundreds of vents dot the surface. Europa likely has a
massive ocean beneath its icy shell. Beyond Jupiter?
Buckle in—Saturn is twice as far from home.Europa
WHAT LAUNCH FEELS LIKE
MIKE MASSIMINO crewed on missions
to the Hubble telescope in 2002 and 2009.
His ride was the space shuttle, whose
combination of solid and liquid fuels
will also be used by NASA’s forthcoming
Space Launch System, which will carry
humans to deep space.With liquid-fueled rockets, you can
throttle the rocket, so they actually start
up the main engines with six seconds to
go in the launch count. They’re located
at the bottom of the shuttle, so it sort of
tips the vehicle forward a little bit. Then
it comes back. And when it’s upright,
you’re at zero. The solid rockets ignite—
they are like giant sticks of dynamite.
Before the shuttle clears the tower, you’re
already going 100 mph. It accelerates
from zero to 17,500 mph in only eight
and a half minutes.
The sheer power of that, what it takes to
get off the planet—I had a sensation after
a minute or so like I was leaving home for
the first time. I felt like this was my first
time really, truly leaving home.
It’s a pretty rough ride for the first two
and a half minutes, but then the solid
rockets part from the vehicle. You continue
to ride the liquid-fueled rockets to orbit.
You get a buildup of G forces that peaks at
about 3 Gs for the last two and a half
minutes. It’s like having three big dudes
sitting on you. A pile of bricks on your chest.
And then, after eight and a half minutes,
the main engines cut and the Gs disappear
and you can feel yourself get lighter. All the
shaking stops. The only noise you really
hear is the humming of the air circulating
and cooling fans. I had a pen on the end of
a lanyard that kind of rose up and floated
next to me. Your arms at your sides will rise
up. And then I remember I took my helmet
off. I saw Tom Hanks do it in Apollo 13,
so I wanted to do it, too. I took my helmet
off and put my helmet in front of me, and
it floated. —AS TOLD TO KEVIN DUPZYKBIOSPHERE 2, ORACLE,ARIZONA
Perhaps no space analog before or since
has matched the scale of Biosphere 2,
an attempt at an entirely self-sustaining,
enclosed environment like that of a
prolonged space expedition.MAUNA LOA, BIG ISLAND, HAWAII
This volcano, geologically similar to
the Red Planet, hosts HI-SEAS, a
habitat for simulating missions on
Mars. Plus, if you’re stuck on Earth,
you might as well be in Hawaii.THE SABBATICAL
ROUND TRIP:
Three years
Explore Mars, which is like the Southwest writ larger.
Hikers will love Olympus Mons, a massive volcano
that stands over 15 miles high and is about the size
of Arizona. Then there’s Valles Marineris, a canyon
thought to be a crack in Mars’s crust formed as the
planet cooled, expanded in parts by erosion. It dwarfs
the Grand Canyon, reaching depths of four miles and
running a length roughly equal to the breadth of the U.S.THE GETAWAY
ROUND TRIP:
Two weeks
The moon is only three days away. It’s the sole desti-
nation in space where you can retrace the steps
of human explorers, and you’ll encounter a variety
of craters, ridges, and plateaus for your own expedi-
tions. The lunar poles harbor water. Mare Orientale is
the moon’s youngest impact basin, ringed by circular
mountain ranges nearly 600 miles in diameter. The near
side of the moon offers breathtaking views of Earth,
while the far side is the ultimate digital detox—there’s
very limited means for communication with Earth.