Robots Already on Mars
Before humans can visit Mars, robotic explorers have been hard at work on the surface. NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021 and has been searching for signs of ancient life ever since. Perseverance carries a small helicopter called Ingenuity, which became the first aircraft to fly on another planet in April 2021. The rover is also collecting rock and soil samples and sealing them in special tubes to be picked up by a future mission and brought back to Earth. China’s Zhurong rover also explored Mars in 2021, making China the second country to successfully operate a rover on the Red Planet.
The Challenge of Getting There
Traveling to Mars is much harder than going to the Moon. Mars is about 140 million miles away from Earth on average, compared to the Moon’s 239,000 miles. A one-way trip to Mars would take about six to nine months using current rocket technology. Astronauts would have to wait on Mars for months until the planets lined up again before they could fly home, making a round trip last two to three years. The long journey means spacecraft must carry enormous amounts of food, water, and supplies, or find ways to produce them along the way.
Living on Mars
Mars is a very harsh place for humans. The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the thin atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, which humans cannot breathe. Future Mars settlers would need to live in pressurized habitats that provide oxygen, warmth, and protection from dangerous radiation. Scientists are working on technology to extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere — in fact, Perseverance’s MOXIE experiment successfully produced oxygen from Mars’s carbon dioxide in 2021. Growing food on Mars is another challenge, and researchers on Earth are experimenting with growing plants in soil that is similar to Martian dirt.
SpaceX and the Starship
SpaceX, the private space company founded by Elon Musk, is building the Starship rocket with the goal of eventually sending people to Mars. Starship is designed to be the most powerful rocket ever launched and is fully reusable, meaning it can fly to space and come back to be used again. Being reusable is important because it could greatly reduce the cost of space travel. SpaceX’s long-term vision includes building a city on Mars where thousands of people could live someday. While that goal is still far in the future, Starship’s development is already making progress with test flights.
NASA’s Mars Plans
NASA has been studying how to send humans to Mars for decades and sees it as a major goal for the 2030s and 2040s. The agency’s plan involves using lessons learned from the Artemis Moon missions to prepare for the longer and more dangerous Mars journey. NASA is developing new technologies like advanced life support systems that can recycle air and water for years at a time. The Mars Sample Return mission, planned in partnership with the European Space Agency, aims to bring Perseverance’s collected rock samples back to Earth for detailed study. These samples could contain evidence of ancient Martian life and help scientists understand what future astronauts might encounter.
Health Challenges for Astronauts
Spending two to three years in space on a Mars mission would be very tough on the human body. In low gravity, astronauts lose bone density and muscle mass, so they would need to exercise for hours every day. Radiation from the Sun and deep space is a serious health risk, and scientists are working on better shielding materials to protect crews. Being so far from Earth also means astronauts could not be rescued quickly if something went wrong — communication signals take up to 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars. Mental health is another concern, since the crew would be isolated in a small space for a very long time with no way to step outside for fresh air.
What the Future Might Look Like
Many scientists and engineers believe humans will set foot on Mars sometime in the 2030s or 2040s. Early missions would likely be short visits where astronauts explore the surface, conduct experiments, and return home. Over time, longer stays could lead to permanent research bases, similar to stations in Antarctica on Earth. Some visionaries imagine a future where Mars is “terraformed,” or slowly transformed to have a thicker atmosphere and warmer temperatures, though that technology is still science fiction for now. Whatever happens, exploring Mars will be one of the greatest adventures in human history and could answer the question of whether we are alone in the universe.
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