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This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, but information technology's been updated with a related video.

The planet Mars is i of the brightest objects in the night sky, easily visible with the unaided eye as a bright scarlet star. Every two years or then, Mars and Earth reach their closest point, called "opposition", when Mars can be every bit close as 55,000,000 km from Globe. And every 2 years, infinite agencies have advantage of this orbital alignment to transport spacecraft to the Red Planet. How long does information technology take to get to Mars?

The total journey fourth dimension from World to Mars takes between 150-300 days depending on the speed of the launch, the alignment of Earth and Mars, and the length of the journey the spacecraft takes to reach its target. Information technology really just depends on how much fuel y'all're willing to fire to get there. More than fuel, shorter travel time.

History of Going to Mars:

The commencement spacecraft always to make the journey from Earth to Mars was NASA'south Mariner four, which launched on November 28, 1964 and arrived at Mars July fourteen, 1965, successfully taking a serial of 21 photographs. Mariner 4'due south total flying time was 228 days.

The next successful mission to Mars was Mariner 6, which blasted off on Feb 25, 1969 and reached the planet on July 31, 1969; a flight time of only 156 days. The successful Mariner 7 only required 131 days to make the journeying.

The NASA team threw in every bit of data they could to model the Mars Curiosity landing. Credit: NASA — *The NASA squad threw in equally of data they could to model the Mars Curiosity landing. Credit: NASA*

Mariner 9, the offset spacecraft to successfully go into orbit around Mars launched on May 30, 1971, and arrived Nov xiii, 1971 for a duration of 167 days. This is the aforementioned design that has held up for more nigh 50 years of Mars exploration: approximately 150-300 days.

Here are some more examples:

Viking 1 (1976) – 335 days
Viking 2 (1976) – 360 days
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006) – 210 days
Phoenix Lander (2008) – 295 days
Curiosity Lander (2012) – 253 days

Why Does it Accept And then Long?:

A top-down image of the orbits of Earth and Mars. Image: NASA — *A top-down image of the orbits of Earth and Mars. Credit: NASA*

When yous consider the fact that Mars is just 55 million km away, and the spacecraft are travelling in excess of xx,000 km/hour, you would expect the spacecraft to brand the journey in about 115 days, but information technology takes much longer. This is because both Globe and Mars are orbiting around the Sun. You can't point directly at Mars and start firing your rockets, considering by the fourth dimension you got there, Mars would take already moved. Instead, spacecraft launched from World demand to be pointed at where Mars is going to be.

The other constraint is fuel. Over again, if yous had an unlimited corporeality of fuel, you'd betoken your spacecraft at Mars, fire your rockets to the halfway point of the journey, and then turn effectually and decelerate for the final half of the journey. You could cutting your travel fourth dimension downward to a fraction of the electric current rate – but you would demand an incommunicable amount of fuel.

How to Go to Mars with the To the lowest degree Amount of Fuel:

The primary business organisation of engineers is how to get a spacecraft to Mars, on the least amount of fuel. Robots don't actually care nearly the hostile surroundings of space, so it makes sense to decrease the launch costs of the rocket as much as possible.

NASA engineers utilize a method of travel chosen a Hohmann Transfer Orbit – or a Minimum Energy Transfer Orbit – to transport a spacecraft from Earth to Mars with the least corporeality of fuel possible. The technique was start proposed by Walter Hohmann who published the commencement description of the maneuver in 1925.

Instead of pointing your rocket directly at Mars, you boost the orbit of your spacecraft and then that it's post-obit a larger orbit around the Sunday than the Earth. Eventually that orbit volition intersect the orbit of Mars – at the verbal moment that Mars is at that place too.

If you need to launch with less fuel, you only take longer to raise your orbit, and increment the journey to Mars.

Other Ideas to Decrease the Travel Time to Mars:

Although it requires some patience to wait for a spacecraft to travel 250 days to attain Mars, we might want a completely different propulsion method if we're sending humans. Space is a hostile identify, and the radiations of interplanetary space might pose a longterm health risk to homo astronauts. The background catholic rays inflict a abiding barrage of cancer-inducing radiation, just there's a bigger risk of massive solar storms, which could kill unprotected astronauts in a few hours. If you can subtract the travel time, yous reduce the amount of time astronauts are getting pelted with radiation, and minimize the amount of supplies they need to bear for a return journey.

Become Nuclear:
Ane thought is nuclear rockets, which oestrus upward a working fluid – like hydrogen – to intense temperatures in a nuclear reactor, and and then blast it out a rocket nozzle at high velocities to create thrust. Because nuclear fuels are far more energy dense than chemical rockets, you could get a higher thrust velocity with less fuel. It's proposed that a nuclear rocket could subtract the travel time down to about 7 months

Go Magnetic:
Another proposal is a technology called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (or VASIMR). This is an electromagnetic thruster which uses radio waves to ionize and estrus a propellant. This creates an ionized gas called plasma which can be magnetically thrust out the back of the spacecraft at high velocities. Former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz is pioneering the development of this technology, and a prototype is expected to be installed on the International Infinite Station to help it maintain its distance above Globe. In a mission to Mars, a VASIMR rocket could reduce the travel fourth dimension downward to v months.

Go Antimatter:
Peradventure one of the most extreme proposals would be to use an antimatter rocket. Created in particle accelerators, antimatter is the virtually dense fuel you could possibly use. When atoms of affair come across atoms of antimatter, they transform into pure energy, equally predicted by Albert Einstein's famous equation: E = mc². Just 10 milligrams of antimatter would be needed to propel a homo mission to Mars in just 45 days. But then, producing even that minuscule amount of antimatter would cost about $250 million.

Artist's concept of Antimatter propulsion system. Credit: NASA/MFSC — *Artist'southward concept of Antimatter propulsion system. Credit: NASA/MFSC*

Hereafter Missions to Mars:

Even though some incredible technologies have been proposed to shorten the travel time to Mars, engineers will exist using the tried and true methods of following minimum free energy transfer orbits using chemical rockets. NASA'southward MAVEN mission will launch in 2013 using this technique, besides ESA'due south ExoMars missions. It might be a few decades before other methods become common techniques.

Research further:
Information about Interplanetary Orbits – NASA
vii Minutes of Terror – The Challenge of Landing at Mars
NASA Proposal for a nuclear rocket engine
Hohmann Transfer Orbits – Iowa State University
Minimum Transfers and Interplanetary Orbits
New and Improved Antimatter Space Send for Mars Missions – NASA
Astronomy Cast Episode 84: Getting Around the Solar System

Related Stories from Universe Today:
Travel to Mars in Only 39 Days
A One Way, One Person Mission to Mars
Could a Homo Mission to Mars exist Funded Commercially?
How Will MSL Navigate to Mars? Very Carefully
A Inexpensive Solution to Getting to Mars?
Why accept so many missions to Mars failed?

This article originally appeared in Universe Today in July, 2012, just information technology'south been updated with a related video.

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