Space has always fascinated humans, and this fascination led humans to the Moon in 1969 which revolutionized the world. 

When humans traveled to the moon it seemed like it was before its time. 

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins first landed on the Moon on the Apollo 11 mission. The spacecraft that made the trip to the moon possible was the Saturn V Rocket that had a height of 363ft and a diameter of 33ft. The moon landing was one of the most important historical events.

But we have already traveled to the moon, but how about Mars? It’s closer than you may think.

On average Mars is 140 million miles away from the earth (the moon is 238,900 miles away from the earth). Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX plans on having the first humans on Mars by 2026. 

SpaceX plans on achieving this by ¨Starship¨, Starship has a height of 394 ft and a diameter of 30ft. Starship is a spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket that is going to be used as a reusable transportation system to carry crew and cargo. 

Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever made. Starship will eventually help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond. 

The first step for SpaceX’s mission to Mars is to first launch Starship, Starship will then need to be refueled from the launch so a refill tanker will be launched to meet up with Starship in orbit, once Starship has been refueled it will begin its journey from Earth’s orbit around the sun then to Mars, when Starship lands on Mars it will refuel by using H2O and CO2 that is already on Mars and then head back to Earth. 

NASA also has a mission to Mars but won’t be done until 2030.

 NASA is first going to send people to the moon by 2024 because the Moon provides an opportunity to test new tools and equipment that could be used on Mars. For example, human habitats, life support systems, and other technologies could help us build self-sustaining outposts away from Earth. 

Living on the Moon for months at a time also will help scientists to understand better how the human body responds to a space environment before committing to the journey to Mars.

Humans will first step foot on Mars in 2026.