For many people it is not an impossible dream. One is Elon Musk, the visionary owner of the Tesla car brand and the SpaceX company. He is convinced that his BFR, a launcher 100 m long and 34 times more thrust than Saturn V, the rocket that took us to the Moon, will take us to Mars in less than two decades. Musk's plan is ambitious: in 2022 he hopes to send cargo ships to the red planet; two years later, the first astronauts.
But such deadlines raise doubts. Even if the necessary technology is developed to achieve this, it will be more difficult to devise a strategy so that the fundamental component of the mission: the human being survives physically and psychically.
NASA's plan
For its part, NASA intends that its expedition members leave their mark on our neighboring world in 2033. Its plan, called Journey to Mars , consists of three phases: the first, which will last until 2020, is focused on obtaining useful knowledge on the Station International Space; the second will last until 2030 and will include various trips to the Moon and its surroundings; The goal of the last phase will be to put a group of humans into Martian orbit in the early 2030s.
