In 2015, President Obama said he wanted the first humans to set foot on the Martian surface in 2033, but that is unlikely to happen and a more realistic date would be around 2040. The statement was made by the head of NASA at a conference after the return of the Orion capsule.

“The goal of reaching Mars in 2033 was announced by President Obama, but several years have passed since then. Now a more realistic goal would be the end of this decade, but everything will depend on the development of new technologies and the ability to keep people fit for such a long journey. It will also be important how quickly we can get a crew to Mars,” said Bill Nelson, NASA’s chief administrator.

He hopes it will be important to get financial support from the US Congress to develop new modes of propulsion to reduce the time it takes to get a human crew to Mars.

The path to Mars, being extremely long, will take, according to current estimates, 7-9 months.

A big problem with a manned mission to Mars is the cost, which is estimated to be between $210 billion and $450 billion over the next three decades. Companies like SpaceX can cut costs, but not much.

In the early 1960s, just months after its founding, NASA was discussing nuclear rockets to send humans to Mars. Ground tests were conducted, but the matter did not go further, as the idea of ​​sending a lot of uranium into space was extremely dangerous.

In 1969, many people said that humans should reach Mars in the 1980s, but the public appetite for space had declined, the cost of a manned mission to Mars would be enormous, and the risk of human death during the mission was very high.

In 1989, President George W. Bush presented a plan that would see humans reach Mars in 2011 at best and 2019 at worst. The return to the moon will take place in 2001 so that in 2002 they will build a space station on the moon. .