How Kong Will It Take to Get Flexible Again
How long does it accept to get to Mars?
If you wanted to travel to Mars, how long would it take? The answer depends on several factors, ranging from the position of the planets to the technology that would propel you there.
According to NASA, a one-way trip to Mars would take well-nigh nine months. If yous wanted to make it a circular-trip, all in all, information technology would take about 21 months equally y'all volition demand to wait virtually three months on Mars to brand certain Earth and Mars are in a suitable location to make the trip dorsum dwelling house.
We accept a await at how long a trip to the Red Planet would accept using bachelor applied science and explore some of the factors that would affect your travel time.
How far away is Mars?
To determine how long it will have to reach Mars, we must first know the distance between the two planets.
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, and the second closest to Earth (Venus is the closest). Just the distance between Earth and Mars is constantly changing as they travel around the lord's day.
In theory, the closest that Earth and Mars would arroyo each other would be when Mars is at its closest point to the sunday (perihelion) and World is at its farthest (aphelion). This would put the planets only 33.9 million miles (54.half dozen million kilometers) apart. However, this has never happened in recorded history. The closest recorded approach of the two planets occurred in 2003 when they were only 34.8 million miles (56 million km) apart.
The two planets are farthest apart when they are both at their uttermost from the sun, on reverse sides of the star. At this point, they tin exist 250 million miles (401 one thousand thousand km) autonomously.
The average distance between Globe and Mars is 140 million miles (225 million km).
Related: What is the temperature on Mars?
How long would information technology take to travel to Mars at the speed of calorie-free?
Light travels at approximately 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second). Therefore, a lite shining from the surface of Mars would take the following amount of time to reach World (or vice versa):
- Closest possible approach: 182 seconds, or three.03 minutes
- Closest recorded approach: 187 seconds, or 3.11 minutes
- Uttermost arroyo: i,342 seconds, or 22.4 minutes
- On average: 751 seconds, or just over 12.5 minutes
Fastest spacecraft then far
The fastest spacecraft is NASA'due south Parker Solar Probe, equally information technology keeps breaking its own speed records every bit it moves closer to the sunday. On Nov 21, 2022 the Parker Solar Probe reached a pinnacle speed of 101 miles (163 kilometers) per second during its 10th shut flyby of our star, which translates to an center-watering 364,621 mph (586,000 kph). According to a NASA statement, when the Parker Solar Probe comes within 4 million miles (vi.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface in December 2024, the spacecraft's speed will height 430,000 miles per hour!
If the Parker Solar Probe managed to achieve the speeds reached during its 10th close flyby of the Sun and took a detour from its lord's day-focused mission to travel in a directly line from Globe to the Scarlet Planet, the time information technology would take to go to Mars would exist:
- Closest possible approach: 93 hours
- Closest recorded approach: 95 hours
- Farthest approach: 686 hours (28.five days)
- On average: 384 hours (xvi days)
The issues with calculating travel times to Mars
Of course, the problem with the previous calculations is that they measure out the distance between the two planets as a straight line. Traveling through the farthest passing of Earth and Mars would involve a trip direct through the lord's day, while spacecraft must of necessity move in orbit around the solar system's star.
Although this isn't a problem for the closest approach, when the planets are on the aforementioned side of the sun, another trouble exists. The numbers likewise assume that the two planets remain at a constant distance; that is, when a probe is launched from Earth while the ii planets are at the closest approach, Mars would remain the same distance away over the 39 days information technology took the probe to travel.
Related: A cursory history of Mars missions
In reality, withal, the planets are continuously moving in their orbits around the sun. Engineers must calculate the ideal orbits for sending a spacecraft from Globe to Mars. Their numbers factor in not only distance merely also fuel efficiency. Like throwing a dart at a moving target, they must calculate where the planet will exist when the spacecraft arrives, non where it is when it leaves Globe. Spaceships must too decelerate to enter orbit effectually a new planet to avoid overshooting it.
How long it takes to reach Mars depends on where in their orbits the ii planets lie when a mission is launched. Information technology besides depends on the technological developments of propulsion systems.
According to NASA Goddard Infinite Flying Center's website, the platonic lineup for a launch to Mars would get you to the planet in roughly 9 months. The website quotes physics professor Craig C. Patten, of the University of California, San Diego:
"It takes the Earth ane year to orbit the sun and it takes Mars about i.9 years (say two years for like shooting fish in a barrel adding) to orbit the sun. The elliptical orbit which carries you from Earth to Mars is longer than Globe'south orbit but shorter than Mars' orbit. Accordingly, we can guess the time it would have to consummate this orbit by averaging the lengths of Earth's orbit and Mars' orbit. Therefore, it would take nigh ane and a one-half years to complete the elliptical orbit.
"In the nine months it takes to become to Mars, Mars moves a considerable distance around in its orbit, near iii-eighths of the way around the sun. You have to plan to make sure that by the time yous reach the distance of Mar's orbit, Mars is where yous demand it to exist! Practically, this means that you tin only begin your trip when Globe and Mars are properly lined upward. This only happens every 26 months. That is, in that location is only one launch window every 26 months."
The trip could be shortened by burning more fuel — a process not ideal with today's technology, Patten said.
Evolving technology tin assist to shorten the flight. NASA's Space Launch Arrangement (SLS) will be the new workhorse for carrying upcoming missions, and potentially humans, to the ruddy planet. SLS is currently being constructed and tested, with NASA at present targeting a launch in March or Apr 2022 for its Artemis 1 flight, the showtime flying of its SLS rocket.
Robotic spacecraft could i day make the trip in only iii days. Photon propulsion would rely on a powerful laser to advance spacecraft to velocities budgeted the speed of lite. Philip Lubin, a physics professor at the Academy of California, Santa Barbara, and his team are working on the Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Exploration (DEEP-IN). The method could propel a 220-lb. (100 kilograms) robotic spacecraft to Mars in but iii days, he said.
"There are recent advances which accept this from science fiction to science reality," Lubin said at the 2022 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fall symposium. "There's no known reason why we cannot do this."
How long did past missions take to reach Mars?
Hither is an infographic detailing how long it took several historical missions to reach the Red Planet (either orbiting or landing on the surface). Their launch dates are included for perspective.
Additional resources
Explore NASA's lunar exploration plans with their Moon to Mars overview. You can read about how to get people from Earth to Mars and safely back once more with this informative article on The Chat. Curious nigh the human wellness risks of a mission to the Scarlet Planet? You may detect this research paper of particular interest.
Bibliography
- Lubin, Philip. "A roadmap to interstellar flight." arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.01356 (2016).
- Donahue, Ben B. "Future Missions for the NASA Space Launch Organisation." AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2022 Forum. 2021.
- Srinivas, Susheela. "Hop, Skip and Jump—The Moon to Mars Mission." (2019).
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Source: https://www.space.com/24701-how-long-does-it-take-to-get-to-mars.html
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