When will there be an actual manned mission to mars?

it's complicated...





A Quick Explainer on Orbital Mechanics
The planets don’t follow circular orbits around the Sun, they’re actually travelling in ellipses. Sometimes they’re at the closest point to the Sun (called perihelion), and other times they’re at the furthest point from the Sun (known as aphelion). To get the closest point between Earth and Mars, you need to imagine a situation where Earth and Mars are located on the same side of the Sun. Furthermore, you want a situation where Earth is at aphelion, at its most distant point from the Sun, and Mars is at perihelion, the closest point to the Sun.

When Earth and Mars are closest

When Earth and Mars reach their closest point, this is known as opposition. It’s the time that Mars appears as a bright red star of the sky; one of the brightest objects, rivalling the brightness of Venus or Jupiter. There’s no question Mars is bright and close, you can see it with your own eyes.

And theoretically at this point, Mars and Earth will be only 54.6 million kilometers from each other. But here’s the thing, this is just theoretical, since the two planets haven’t been this close to one another in recorded history. The last known closest approach was back in 2003, when Earth and Mars were only 56 million kilometers apart. And this was the closest they’d been in 50,000 years.

Need that in miles? The closest possible distance from Earth to Mars in miles is 33.9 million miles.

Here’s a list of Mars Oppositions from 2007-2020 (source)

Dec. 24, 2007 – 88.2 million km (54.8 million miles)
Jan. 29, 2010 – 99.3 million km (61.7 million miles)
Mar. 03, 2012 – 100.7 million km (62.6 million miles)
Apr. 08, 2014 – 92.4 million km (57.4 million miles)
May. 22, 2016 – 75.3 million km (46.8 million miles)
Jul. 27. 2018 – 57.6 million km (35.8 million miles)
Oct. 13, 2020 – 62.1 million km (38.6 million miles)

2018 should be a very good year, with a Mars looking particularly bright and red in the sky.

Thanks, so techinically how long could a manned mission take?

Anyone ever visited NASA's headquater's in Washington?

If only we had a Flux Capitor.

(As)The reflectivity of the radiative shields increased, the rate of heat transfer between the hot and cold thermostat was dramatically reduced

I remember back in High School when my science teacher suggested that the rings of Saturn were made of water ice. I suggested that the solar wind probably blew the water from Mars out to the outer Solar system.
Back in that day & age kids were not supposed to think outside the textbook so I got reprimanded and told to study harder.

Then Voyagers found water ice moon, water ice rings around all the outer planets and I reasserted my idea that it was Mars water in an email to Carl Sagan. No reply.

Now, NASA comes to the conclusion that the Solar weather stripped Mars of its Water reserves and blew them off into space.

DUH!

I remember back in High School when my science teacher suggested that the rings of Saturn were made of water ice. I suggested that the solar wind probably blew the water from Mars out to the outer Solar system.
Back in that day & age kids were not supposed to think outside the textbook so I got reprimanded and told to study harder.

Then Voyagers found water ice moon, water ice rings around all the outer planets and I reasserted my idea that it was Mars water in an email to Carl Sagan. No reply.

Now, NASA comes to the conclusion that the Solar weather stripped Mars of its Water reserves and blew them off into space.

DUH!

Remarkable!!
On a similar note; may be NASA should consider landing polar bears somewhere near the Mars pole before any of their 'manned missions'? Assuming details like training, light gear and a supply of frozen fish (for 2 years). Add some friendly rovers to keep them company and observe their survival techniques.

is this practical?

where do you get your information?

wouldn't most the water/co2 get absorbed by the asteroid belt? after that, there's Jupiter, with smaller rings, then Saturn, with the biggest rings... so it seems likely the AB and Jupiter would get most all of the water molecules,. unless it was a massive blast from the sun with Jupiter on the other side of the solar system at the time...

On a similar note; may be NASA should consider landing polar bears somewhere near the Mars pole before any of their 'manned missions'? Assuming details like training, light gear and a supply of frozen fish (for 2 years). Add some friendly rovers to keep them company and observe their survival techniques.

is this practical?

Taken as trying to be cute. LOL

If you were serious? Hahahaha

Anything and everything that reduces risk should be weighed upon??
After all this one is in line with the gorilla and the dog (Russian) that went out in space before man..

Rural folks over here used to train bears to perform till the government banned it. Yes Sir, bears can be trained all right. May have to catch them young though.