• Question: If we could, how long would it take to reach Mars?

    Asked by samuel1998 to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 17 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Lena Ciric

      Lena Ciric answered on 17 Mar 2012:

      The distance from the Earth to Mas changes as our orbits around the Sun are not synchronised. The average distance between us is 225 million km – when the two orbits are at their closest we are about 55 million km away and when furthest away about 400 million km.

      To reach Mars, a spacecraft has to take into account the two planets gravitational fields – it can’t just fly a straight line from one to the other. The total journey takes about seven months.

    • Photo: Sean Murphy

      Sean Murphy answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      I heard the other day that they predict that an astronaut would need to be gone about 1.5years for a mission to Mars (including time actually on the planet). Some of the problems with a human staying in space for so long is that astronauts are exposed to a lot more radiation, and lose bone density due to the low gravity.

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