If You Fail the Ccent How Long Do You Have to Wait Before You Can Take It Again
How long does information technology accept to go to Mars?
If y'all wanted to travel to Mars, how long would it take? The answer depends on several factors, ranging from the position of the planets to the technology that would propel you there.
According to NASA, a one-way trip to Mars would accept almost nine months. If you wanted to make information technology a round-trip, all in all, information technology would have about 21 months as you lot volition need to wait about 3 months on Mars to make sure Earth and Mars are in a suitable location to brand the trip back domicile.
We accept a expect at how long a trip to the Red Planet would accept using available engineering science and explore some of the factors that would affect your travel time.
How far away is Mars?
To decide how long it will have to accomplish Mars, we must first know the distance betwixt the 2 planets.
Mars is the quaternary planet from the sun, and the second closest to World (Venus is the closest). But the distance between Earth and Mars is constantly changing as they travel around the sun.
In theory, the closest that Earth and Mars would approach each other would be when Mars is at its closest betoken to the dominicus (perihelion) and Earth is at its farthest (aphelion). This would put the planets simply 33.nine one thousand thousand miles (54.half dozen million kilometers) apart. Even so, this has never happened in recorded history. The closest recorded approach of the two planets occurred in 2003 when they were only 34.viii one thousand thousand miles (56 million km) apart.
The two planets are uttermost apart when they are both at their farthest from the sun, on reverse sides of the star. At this bespeak, they tin can exist 250 meg miles (401 million km) apart.
The boilerplate distance between Earth and Mars is 140 meg miles (225 million km).
Related: What is the temperature on Mars?
How long would it take to travel to Mars at the speed of light?
Light travels at approximately 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second). Therefore, a light shining from the surface of Mars would take the following amount of time to reach Globe (or vice versa):
- Closest possible approach: 182 seconds, or 3.03 minutes
- Closest recorded approach: 187 seconds, or 3.11 minutes
- Farthest approach: one,342 seconds, or 22.iv minutes
- On average: 751 seconds, or just over 12.five minutes
Fastest spacecraft then far
The fastest spacecraft is NASA'south Parker Solar Probe, every bit information technology keeps breaking its own speed records as it moves closer to the sun. On Nov 21, 2022 the Parker Solar Probe reached a top speed of 101 miles (163 kilometers) per 2d during its 10th close flyby of our star, which translates to an eye-watering 364,621 mph (586,000 kph). According to a NASA statement, when the Parker Solar Probe comes within 4 meg miles (6.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface in December 2024, the spacecraft'south speed will tiptop 430,000 miles per hour!
If the Parker Solar Probe managed to accomplish the speeds reached during its tenth close flyby of the Sun and took a detour from its sun-focused mission to travel in a straight line from Earth to the Red Planet, the time it would take to get to Mars would be:
- Closest possible approach: 93 hours
- Closest recorded approach: 95 hours
- Farthest approach: 686 hours (28.five days)
- On boilerplate: 384 hours (16 days)
The problems with calculating travel times to Mars
Of class, the problem with the previous calculations is that they measure out the distance between the two planets as a straight line. Traveling through the farthest passing of Globe and Mars would involve a trip directly through the sun, while spacecraft must of necessity motility in orbit around the solar arrangement's star.
Although this isn't a problem for the closest approach, when the planets are on the same side of the sun, some other problem exists. The numbers also assume that the two planets remain at a constant altitude; that is, when a probe is launched from Earth while the two planets are at the closest arroyo, Mars would remain the aforementioned altitude away over the 39 days information technology took the probe to travel.
Related: A brief history of Mars missions
In reality, however, the planets are continuously moving in their orbits around the dominicus. Engineers must summate the ideal orbits for sending a spacecraft from Earth to Mars. Their numbers factor in non merely distance but also fuel efficiency. Like throwing a dart at a moving target, they must calculate where the planet volition be when the spacecraft arrives, non where it is when it leaves Earth. Spaceships must besides decelerate to enter orbit effectually a new planet to avoid overshooting it.
How long it takes to reach Mars depends on where in their orbits the two planets lie when a mission is launched. Information technology also depends on the technological developments of propulsion systems.
According to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's website, the ideal lineup for a launch to Mars would get you to the planet in roughly nine months. The website quotes physics professor Craig C. Patten, of the University of California, San Diego:
"It takes the Globe one year to orbit the sun and it takes Mars about 1.nine years (say 2 years for easy calculation) to orbit the sun. The elliptical orbit which carries you from Earth to Mars is longer than Globe'due south orbit but shorter than Mars' orbit. Accordingly, we can estimate the fourth dimension it would have to complete this orbit by averaging the lengths of Earth's orbit and Mars' orbit. Therefore, it would take about 1 and a half years to complete the elliptical orbit.
"In the nine months it takes to get to Mars, Mars moves a considerable distance around in its orbit, about three-eighths of the way effectually the lord's day. Y'all have to program to make sure that past the time you reach the altitude of Mar's orbit, Mars is where you lot need it to be! Practically, this ways that y'all can only brainstorm your trip when Earth and Mars are properly lined upwardly. This simply happens every 26 months. That is, there is merely ane launch window every 26 months."
The trip could be shortened by burning more fuel — a process not ideal with today's applied science, Patten said.
Evolving engineering science can help to shorten the flight. NASA's Space Launch Organization (SLS) will exist the new workhorse for carrying upcoming missions, and potentially humans, to the crimson planet. SLS is currently beingness synthetic and tested, with NASA at present targeting a launch in March or April 2022 for its Artemis i flight, the starting time flight of its SLS rocket.
Robotic spacecraft could one mean solar day make the trip in merely three days. Photon propulsion would rely on a powerful laser to accelerate spacecraft to velocities approaching the speed of light. Philip Lubin, a physics professor at the Academy of California, Santa Barbara, and his team are working on the Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Exploration (DEEP-IN). The method could propel a 220-lb. (100 kilograms) robotic spacecraft to Mars in only three days, he said.
"There are recent advances which have this from science fiction to science reality," Lubin said at the 2022 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fall symposium. "At that place's no known reason why we cannot do this."
How long did by missions have to reach Mars?
Hither is an infographic detailing how long it took several historical missions to achieve the Cerise Planet (either orbiting or landing on the surface). Their launch dates are included for perspective.
Additional resources
Explore NASA'due south lunar exploration plans with their Moon to Mars overview. You can read well-nigh how to get people from Globe to Mars and safely back again with this informative article on The Conversation. Curious almost the man wellness risks of a mission to the Scarlet Planet? You lot may notice this research paper of detail involvement.
Bibliography
- Lubin, Philip. "A roadmap to interstellar flight." arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.01356 (2016).
- Donahue, Ben B. "Futurity Missions for the NASA Infinite Launch Organisation." AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2022 Forum. 2021.
- Srinivas, Susheela. "Hop, Skip and Jump—The Moon to Mars Mission." (2019).
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you accept a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
Source: https://www.space.com/24701-how-long-does-it-take-to-get-to-mars.html
0 Response to "If You Fail the Ccent How Long Do You Have to Wait Before You Can Take It Again"
Post a Comment