Until flying through the Sun becomes a reality, it will take humans between six and ten months to reach Mars. The exact travel time depends on what time of the year it takes place, though. The distance between Earth and Mars is continually changing as the two planets rotate around the Sun. Obviously, the closer the planets are to each other, the shorter the journey will be.
Can you imagine being in a tube with the same people for a minimum of 180 days? I can’t.
The closest that Earth and Mars ever get is a distance of 33.9 million miles. That’s the equivalent of taking a roundtrip flight from New York to London nearly 5,000 times. The average distance between the two planets is about 140 million miles.
This is what Elon Musk thinks a Mars colony could look like.
On February 6th, 2018, SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket headed for Mars with a payload of a Tesla Roadster blasting David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and a dummy crew inside of it.
SpaceX plans to send its first cargo mission to Mars in 2022, with hopes to send humans in 2024.
There is research underway that might allow humans to reach Mars in as little as 30 days, but that technology won’t be ready for quite some time, if ever.
INTERESTING FACTS
- About a third of the missions to Mars have failed.
- The average surface temperature on Mars is -81˚F (-63˚C).
- Valles Marineris is about five times deeper, four times longer and twenty times wider than the Grand Canyon.
- If you had a flashlight bright enough to reach Mars, it would take 12 minutes for anyone on Mars to see the light once you turned it on.
INTERESTING VIDEO
INTERESTING REFERENCES
- NYPost.com – This is how long it takes to get to Mars
- Space.com – How long does it take to get to Mars?
- ScienceAlert.com – 12 Awesome Facts About Mars That Will Make You Love The Red Planet Even More
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