How long to get to Mars?
If you could jump in a car and travel at 161 kph (100 mph), it would take about 14,583 days or 40 years to reach Mars, but if you wanted some exercise, you could walk (at 6kph or 3.7 mph) and get there in 1,065 years!
Earth and Mars travel around the Sun at different speeds and distances, so the distance between us varies considerably.
Yet a day on Mars is remarkably similar to a day on Earth.
At our furthest distance, we are on opposite sides of the Sun (called a solar conjunction) when we are about 401 million km (249 million miles) apart.
The average distance between Earth and Mars is 225 million km (140 million miles)
The two planets are closest when we are both on the same side of the Sun (called opposition) at about 56 million km (34.7 million miles) apart. This happens every two years and is our launch window to the Red Planet.
The first successful mission to Mars, Viking 1, launched on 20 August 1975 and landed on Mars on 19 June 1976, ten months later.
The rovers Spirit and Opportunity took just 6 months to reach Mars in 2003 and 2004.
The Curiosity rover launched on 26 November 2011 and landed on Mars on 5 August 2012.
Perseverance rover launched on 30 July 2020 and landed on Mars on 18 February 2021.
Various space agencies are working towards a crewed mission to Mars.
NASA is working towards a 9-month journey, while SpaceX hopes to cut the trip to 6 months.
The time it takes to get from Earth to Mars is mainly dependent on the propulsion method used.
A photon propulsion system is currently in development that would use a powerful laser to accelerate spacecraft to near the speed of light, cutting the journey to just three days!
