Joe P
Memory Alpha incarnate | mod; Shatner number = 2
Even with the technological advances of the last 50 years — not to mention the experience gained from NASA's many successful launches of probes into orbit about planets and landings on a planet and even the moon of planet! — I'm doubtful humans will set foot on Mars in my lifetime.
For one, the distance to Mars is orders of magnitude greater than to the moon. But even if that weren't the prime issue, how big of a rocket* would you need to get a person or two or three to Mars, land on the planet and have enough of a rocket left to come back to Earth, all the while storing enough oxygen and food and spinning people in a centrifuge to make the years-long trip in an otherwise zero G environment feasible.
Joe
* I did a back of an envelop calculation and came up with [ginormous number] ^3 metric tonnes.
For one, the distance to Mars is orders of magnitude greater than to the moon. But even if that weren't the prime issue, how big of a rocket* would you need to get a person or two or three to Mars, land on the planet and have enough of a rocket left to come back to Earth, all the while storing enough oxygen and food and spinning people in a centrifuge to make the years-long trip in an otherwise zero G environment feasible.
Joe
* I did a back of an envelop calculation and came up with [ginormous number] ^3 metric tonnes.