May I remind you that no one has ever stepped foot on Mars, at least none recorded. But trip to mars has become one of the most fantasized trips in the history on space travel, even more than moon travel.
There have been speculations that life could exist on this neighboring planet of ours. But these have not been confirmed.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently announced their plans to send people to the mars by 2033 (Just 16 years away).
Prior to this time, NASA had sent Rovers, and other Unmanned Vessels to this planet to gather information that would ultimately put humans there.
DETAILED PLAN FOR THE TRIP
The plan has been broken into six phases
• Phase 1: (2018-2025) Testing of International Space Station, and partnering with private space corporations.
• Phase 2: (2027-2029) Launching of the Space Transport Tube
• Phase 3: (2030) Restocking of the Space Transport Tube with Supplies for the space crew
• Phase 4: (2033) The trip
• Phase 5: Post trip logistics
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE JOURNEY?
With the speed of the fastest ever spacecraft 17,500 mph + 67,000 mph (earth’s velocity, relative to the sun) = 84,500 mph, it will take between 6-7months to make the trip to mars.
Are humans ready to endure such journey?
There is a theoretical alternative to shorten the time of the journey to few hours. The alternative is to power the spacecraft with Antimatter. But practically, it is almost impossible. This is because Antimatter costs $62.5Trillion per gram (World’s costliest material).
The scariest part of the trip is; there is no guaranteed return for anyone that makes the trip. It’s more like a one way trip.
References for Further reading and image source: Ref 1, Ref 2, Imgs
Thanks for reading
But the question is: Can you, for any price, take this kind of trip?
