Mars is 200 million kilometers from Earth

Among the eight planets in our solar system, Mars is the most popular one, except for the Earth, which is inhabited by humans. Even now, there are still people who believe that Mars may be the second home of human beings in the solar system.

The reason for this is that Mars has many similarities to Earth.

Mars

Mars has been observed by humans since ancient times. At that time, Europe called it Mars, while China called it Fluxus. The two civilizations coincided in their definitions of Mars as a planet representing "war".

With the development of human society, the mystery of Mars was gradually unveiled.

As its name suggests, the surface of Mars is covered with hematite, so its appearance differs from the light blue of Earth to orange-red color. Although the two planets do not exhibit the same external characteristics, they are similar in many ways.

Earth is the third closest planet to the Sun and Mars is the fourth, which means that there is no presence of extremely high temperatures on the surface of Mars and no lack of light due to its distance from the Sun.

In addition, Mars also has four seasons, and the upcoming eh changes also give people a glimpse of the future in it.

In addition, with the study of Mars by humans, scientists have also found traces of the presence of water on Mars. On Mars, there are not only the remains of river deltas and dried-up lakes, but even in 2014, scientists discovered the existence of huge water resources inside Mars.

Not only that, but scientists have also tested samples of Martian meteorites, and they say that there may be microorganisms in places with high concentrations of methane on Mars. As early as once, American scientists considered Mars to be a habitable planet, and now the speculation that life may exist has led to high hopes for Mars.

There seems to be hope for moving to Mars and changing the destiny of mankind. So how long would it take for astronauts to get to Mars?

The challenges of going to Mars

Astronauts on Mars are not something that can be done in a word.

In 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin both went to the moon and wrote the first step for mankind to set foot in space. In more than fifty years, the entire world has seen more than a dozen people go to the moon.

It seems that stepping into the rest of space is no longer a pipe dream. But if the destination is changed to Mars, the difficulty of human landing will increase exponentially.

The difficulty of distance

For now, the most obvious progress in human research on space is the moon. This is because the Moon is closer to the Earth than other bodies, with an average distance of about 380,000 kilometers.

Mars is indeed close to Earth compared to objects such as Neptune, but this "proximity" also means that they are separated by an average distance of more than 200 million kilometers.

It may only take a few days for humans to launch a spacecraft to the Moon, but to travel to Mars, the time would be stretched hundreds of times.

Moreover, the distance between Earth and Mars cannot be calculated in this way alone.

Unlike the Moon, which revolves around the Earth, Mars revolves around the Sun as well as the Earth. If we calculate in units of one week of Earth's rotation, it takes 1.88 years for Mars to orbit the Sun. This means that both rotate at the same time, and the distance between the Earth and Mars varies due to the inconsistent speed, with the closest distance between the two is more than 50 million kilometers and the farthest distance reaching 400 million kilometers.

Therefore, if we consider the point of view of fuel saving, and try to ensure that the launch of the vehicle can be limited to the distance of the closest range, we need to face the fate of missing this time and will have to wait for two years.

Even if everything is ready when the closest distance between Earth and Mars, the rotation speed of Mars has to be calculated. Otherwise, in the long hours and days of the vehicle finally completed the long journey, only to find themselves on the ground when Mars has already gone to the ball empty.

At the same time, the difficulty of the distance also reveals to us two other difficulties: astronauts and food.

Astronauts and food

According to the length of the previous probe to Mars, a one-way journey takes more than two hundred days. When astronauts go to Mars, it means that the vehicle must be a round-trip ticket. That is, even if the vehicle could travel the closest distance to Mars, it would take the astronauts more than 400 days in space to do so.

Astronauts are precious and rare for every country that is passionate about space, and very few people can withstand all the screening to go into space.

And human history, the longest time left in a space station in record is the Soviet cosmonaut, who spent 311 days in space. For more than four hundred days, it can be said that the human body can withstand another limit.

Not only that, but food for cosmonauts is also a big problem. At present, the spacecraft to space astronaut configuration is three, they need almost three kilograms of food per day, if the round trip of four hundred days to calculate, it will require twelve tons of space food.

The spaceport of the vehicle does not have much space, how to place the twelve tons of food is another big problem.

Fuel and funding issues

In addition, fuel is another big problem. Just like food, how to carry and store the fuel for the round trip is another problem for astronauts exploring Mars.

In addition, the biggest problem should be the issue of funding.

Of the world's exploration of Mars, nearly two-thirds of the endeavors have failed. According to statistics, the amount of money spent per kilogram just to send objects from Earth to Mars is as high as $30,000. Not to mention the cost of training highly qualified astronauts, and preparing adequate fuel and food?

If these are taken into account, the spacecraft must also be modified, these expenses are undoubtedly another astronomical amount. Therefore, it is close to impossible for humans to visit Mars in the short term.

In addition to the difficulties mentioned above, the astronauts and vehicles that reach Mars will also have to face many challenges. The surface of Mars, with 95 percent carbon dioxide, the occasional storms, and the high intensity of solar radiation that it has to endure due to the thin atmosphere, are all practical considerations.

Therefore, humans may have more and more comprehensive knowledge of Mars in a short period, but the time taken by astronauts to land on Mars is still very long now.