Should the first manned mission to Mars be all WOMEN? Females need fewer resources so the trip..How will we land astronauts on Mars? Thermal footage of Space X Falcon 9 rocket could help Nasa find out

Should the first manned mission to Mars be all WOMEN? Females need fewer resources so the trip is easier, claims expert:
San Francisco writer says the first mission to Mars should be only women
Kate Green for Slate took part in a simulated mission to the red planet
She found that women needed much less resources than men
Most women burned less than 2,000 calories per day, but men regularly exceeded 3,000 calories
Ms Greene says female astronauts, with typically smaller bodies than men, would thus be better suited for an expensive mission to Mars
To date, the overwhelming majority of astronauts have been men, with Russia as an example only recently sending a woman to space after an absence of female cosmonauts for several decades.

But the first manned mission to Mars should be all women, a science writer who took part in a simulated mission to the red planet has claimed.

She says that females require a lower calorific intake than men and thus need fewer resources, making an all-women mission to Mars cheaper and more feasible.

The argument was made by San Francisco-based writer Kate Greene for Slate.

Last year she took part in a Nasa project called Hi-Seas (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), which simulated a long-duration mission to Mars on Earth.

Ms Greene and five other crewmembers - three men and three women in total - spent four months in a dome on Hawaii, only leaving the habitat in mock spacesuits.

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How will we land astronauts on Mars? Thermal footage of Space X Falcon 9 rocket could help Nasa find out:
Footage captured Falcon 9 rocket as its first stage fell back to Earth
First stage is the part that is ignited at launch and is later discarded
Its descent back to Earth presents Mars-like conditions, says Nasa
Agency will analyse data to help understand how to land on Mars
Nasa says it is hoping to send humans to the red planet by 2030
Probes sent to Mars usually use a soft landing system that causes them to bounce several times before coming to a standstill.
But Nasa needs to be more accurate when it comes to putting humans on the red planet, and it is hoping Space X's Falcon 9 rocket could help.

The space agency recently teamed up with Elon Musk's firm to record thermal footage of the Falcon 9 rocket as its first stage pulled away and burned through the atmosphere.

The first stage is the part of the rocket that is ignited at launch and burns through the rocket's ascent until it runs out of propellant.

At this point it is discarded from the second stage and returns to Earth.

The first stage is the part of the rocket that is ignited at launch and burns through the rocket's ascent until it runs out of propellant.

At this point it is discarded from the second stage and returns to Earth.
According to Nasa, its descent back to Earth presents Mars-like conditions, which means data collected could help plan a future mission to the red planet.

With an failure rate of 66 per cent, the entry, descent and landing phase of the Mars mission is the key part of any mission to the red planet.

Mars' surface pressure is less than one per cent of Earth’s, which is not enough to slow down an aircraft from its entry speed of more than 12,000mph (19,000 km/h).

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