The difficulty with going to Mars (at least as of today)

by omahadomer, Sunday, April 12, 2026, 09:52 (7 days ago) @ nedhead

is the journey would be 9 months or so one way. Probes can get there in as little as 7 months. I assume it's timed so that the distance between Earth and Mars is at or close to its least. A Mars orbit is just over two Earth years and isn't wildly eccentric so I assume that's not hard to calculate.

Packing enough so that you could keep two or three humans alive has to be a challenge. I know people have been in the ISS or Mir for a year or more but those space stations get replenished regularly.

A trip that takes two years has to be exponentially more complicated than a week or so.

--
"It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller's and Noem's dirty lies."