Mars is between 33 and 249 million miles away from Earth, depending on the time of year you make the journey. That comes out to about two years of travel.
Once you get there, conditions on the Red Planet are brutal, with temperatures ranging from around -248 degrees Fahrenheit to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Just getting there is a feat that seems difficult to imagine, yet once astronauts make the trek, they’re in for an intense workload.
According to NASA, plans are in the works for travel to Mars as early as the 2030s and it will likely take that long or longer to prepare astronauts for what’s ahead.
Communication with Earth
One of the first concerns when it comes to preparing astronauts for travel to Mars is understanding what’s possible when it comes to communicating back to Earth. How will astronauts making the trip communicate back to NASA as well as family back home?
