NASA: PLAN OF PERMANENT SETTLEMENT ON MARS. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the US space agency released a detailed outline of its plan to send manned mission to Mars. In a report titled “NASA’s Journey to Mars Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration”, the agency said it is closer to sending manned mission to mars for establishing permanent settlement on creating deep-space habitation facilities there by 2030s. The plan under which, humans will be living and working on Mars in colonies entirely independent of earth by the 2030s, will act as stepping stones to Mars. Three stages of Journey to Mars NASA explains that the journey to Mars will cross three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from earth and closer to Mars. These steps are- 1) Earth Reliant exploration The Earth Reliant exploration is focused on research aboard the international Space Station. For that NASA is testing technologies and advancing human health and performance research that will enable deep space, log duration missions. 2) Proving Ground In the Proving Ground, NASA will learn to conduct complex operation in a deep space environment that allows crews to return to earth in a matter of days. For that, NASA will advance and validate capabilities required for humans to live and work of distances much further away from our home planet, such as at Mars. 3) Earth Independent activities The earth independent activities build on what NASA has experienced on the space station and in deep space to enable human mission to the mars vicinity, possibly to low-mars orbit or one of the Martian moons, and eventually the Martian surface. The settlement further said that the further Mars mission will represent a collaborative effort between NASA and its partners to mark a global achievement in a transition in humanity’s expansion to Mars to seek the potential for sustainable life beyond earth. Engineers and scientists around the country are working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home from the next giant leap for humanity. NASA also is a leader in a Global Exploration Roadmap, working with international partners and the U.S. commercial space industry on a coordinated expansion of human presence into the solar system, with human missions to the surface of Mars as the driving goal. --Sambhrant Srivastava (Assistant Professor) (Mechanical Engineering Department) (JEMTEC Greater Noida)