Their launch dates are included for perspective. Here is a list of how long it took several historical missions to reach the red planet. "There's no known reason why we cannot do this." How long did it take? "There are recent advances which take this from science fiction to science reality," Lubin said at the 2015 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fall symposium. (100 kilogram) robotic spacecraft to Mars in only three days, he said. Philip Lubin, a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his team are working on the Directed Energy Propulsion for Intersteller Exploration (DEEP-IN). Photon propulsion would rely on a powerful laser to accelerate spacecraft to velocities approaching the speed of light. Robotic spacecraft could one day make the trip in only three days. SLS is currently being constructed and tested, with its first flight planned for 2019. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will be the new workhorse for carrying upcoming missions, and potentially humans, to the red planet. The trip could be shortened by burning more fuel - a process not ideal with today's technology, Patten said.Įvolving technology can help to shorten the flight. That is, there is only one launch window every 26 months." You have to plan ahead to make sure that by the time you reach the distance of Mar's orbit, that Mars is where you need it to be! Practically, this means that you can only begin your trip when Earth and Mars are properly lined up. "In the nine months it takes to get to Mars, Mars moves a considerable distance around in its orbit, about three-eighths of the way around the sun. Therefore, it would take about one and a half years to complete the elliptical orbit. Accordingly, we can estimate the time it would take to complete this orbit by averaging the lengths of Earth's orbit and Mars' orbit. The elliptical orbit which carries you from Earth to Mars is longer than Earth's orbit, but shorter than Mars' orbit. "It takes the Earth one year to orbit the sun and it takes Mars about 1.9 years (say 2 years for easy calculation) to orbit the sun. Patten, of the University of California, San Diego: The website quotes physics professor Craig C. It also depends on the technological developments of propulsion systems.Īccording to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's website, the ideal lineup for a launch to Mars would get you to the planet in roughly nine months. How long it takes to reach Mars depends on where in their orbits the two planets lie when a mission is launched. Spaceships must also decelerate to enter orbit around a new planet to avoid overshooting it. Like throwing a dart at a moving target, they must calculate where the planet will be when the spacecraft arrives, not where it is when it leaves Earth. Their numbers factor in not only distance but also fuel efficiency. Engineers must calculate the ideal orbits for sending a spacecraft from Earth to Mars. In reality, however, the planets are continuously moving in their orbits around the sun. The numbers also assume that the two planets remain at a constant distance that is, when a probe is launched from Earth while the two planets are at the closest approach, Mars would remain the same distance away over the course of the 39 days it took the probe to travel. Traveling through the farthest passing of Earth and Mars would involve a trip directly through the sun, while spacecraft must of necessity move in orbit around the solar system's star.Īlthough this isn't a problem for the closest approach, when the planets are on the same side of the sun, another problem exists. Of course, the problem with the previous calculations is that they measure distance between the two planets as a straight line. Farthest approach: 6,944 hours (289 days).Closest recorded approach: 967 hours (41 days).
Closest possible approach: 942 hours (39 days).If such a probe traveled in a straight line to Mars, the time it would take to get to Mars would be:
In January 2006, the probe left Earth at 36,000 mph (58,000 kph).
The fastest spacecraft launched from Earth was NASA's New Horizons mission, which visited Pluto in 2015.