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A flight to Mars has a duration that doesn’t even reach a year. Nevertheless, you spend most of it in the spaceship.
This is how long a flight to Mars takes
At about 260 days, a flight to Mars takes less than a whole year. The fact that Mars is a moving target plays a particularly important role here.
- A static Mars could theoretically be reached in 39 days. However, to do this, you have to get the angle right at launch or you miss the planet.
- For everything to work out, both Mars and Earth have to be in the right position, but this only happens every 26 months.
- In reality, however, this very trajectory must be adjusted during the journey itself. With a route of this length, a correction every 15 days is sufficient. After about 9 months, the destination is then reached.
More information about a Mars flight
It’s not just the duration of a flight to Mars that carries risks. Besides technical problems, a trip to Mars should never last longer than four years. After that, the risk of damage from radiation from space increases.
- This, of course, drives up the planning and cost of a Mars flight. In addition, weight plays a role in the duration of the journey.
- More ballast also means more fuel to launch the spacecraft. That’s why only probes have been sent to Mars so far.
- It will still be a while before humans are sent to Mars. Especially because they will be on the road for a whole year first.
