Taking astronauts to Mars requires something we don't yet have: a better higher-powered rocket. This is where NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) comes in, and this week the SLS will get its critical design review.

This review will examine everything about the design of the rocket as scientists make sure that the rocket meets system requirements and does so within its budget and timeline. It's the step that happens before the rocket goes into production and testing, so is necessary, or "critical," to whether the rocket goes from design phase to becoming a real thing.

The critical design review makes sure that building the device isn't just feasible, but that the final product will actually work the way it's supposed to.

"We pore over every part of this rocket during these reviews," says says SLS Program Manager Todd May. "Thousands of documents and months of time are put into making sure the design is sound, safe and sustainable, and will make NASA's mission of furthering human spaceflight possible."

Many of the rocket's parts have already undergone reviews (and all passed with flying colors). Now, NASA will look at the rocket as a whole and how those parts work together.

So why do we need a new rocket anyway? Well, NASA has a plan to get a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. The rockets we use now don't have the power to get us there, so we need new transportation. And the agency believes that the SLS is just the rocket we need. In combination with NASA's other project, the Orion capsule, the agency hopes to turn the dream of a manned mission to Mars into a reality.

"Offering the highest-ever payload mass and volume capability and energy to speed missions through space, SLS will be the most powerful rocket in history and is designed to be flexible and evolvable, to meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs," writes NASA on its website.

NASA hopes to complete the current critical design review by June, which, hopefully, results in a full-scale version of SLS to follow. After that, SLS will get its first launch test by taking a 77-ton Orion capsule beyond low-Earth orbit. Eventually, the rocket will carry up to 143 tons into far space.

[Photo Credit: NASA/MSFC]

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