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The Science 360

Learning paths

What would it really take to get to Mars and live there?

Mars looks close on a map and is a hard problem in practice. This route follows the order the problems arrive in: first getting off the ground, then choosing a transfer orbit, then surviving the trip, then the question of making the planet itself liveable.

The rocket equation is the first and most stubborn limit, because it makes fuel grow exponentially with the speed you want. Everything after it is a choice about how to live with that limit.

  1. 1
    Simulation

    Rocket equation: why is orbit so hard?

    The limit behind every launch: why the fuel needed grows exponentially with the speed you want.

  2. 2
    Simulation

    How long does it take to get to Mars?

    With that limit in mind, the cheapest path to Mars and why it only opens every 26 months.

  3. 3
    Simulation

    Spin a space station: artificial gravity

    Months in transit. How a spinning ship could replace the weight you lose on the way.

  4. 4
    Simulation

    Could we terraform Mars?

    The end of the trip: what it would take to turn Mars’s ice into liquid water.

  5. 5
    Article

    Could Mars Be the First Terraformed Planet?

    The longer discussion of whether terraforming is realistic.

  6. 6
    Article

    Glorious Near Future of Space Exploration

    Where the missions that would do all this stand today.