Dreaming about Mars and actually going there are two very different things. Mars may be our neighbour, but 35 million miles to the closest point is still a very long way from home. 

 

To put him on the surface of Mars, someone once joked there're only three issues: getting them there, keeping them alive while they are there and getting them back.

 

Our space age dreams of off-world colonies on the moon and Mars faded with the cancellation of the Apollo Program and the last trip to the lunar surface in 1972. It didn't stop us from travelling, we simply switched from astronauts to lower cost, lower risk robotic explores. And when it comes to Mars, it's probably just as well. 

 

Getting to Mars is just unbelievably hard. We've learned that the hard way before certainly it gave to go back to the days before the rovers launch two third in the missions that they fall in the Mars and fail. They fail for all kinds of reasons: rockets that blew up and spacecraft that just vanished partly without a trace.

 

Five, four, three, two, one, engine start.. Lift off.

 

If you are ever lucky enough to book a flight on the first rocket to the red planet, you'd better be sure you've packed everything. The one-way trip is at least six months with no turning back if you've forgotten something. 

 

We can go to the moon and get back in a week. It takes about three years to go to Mars and come back. You have to carry your food, you have to recycle your breathing oxygen and your water. So it's a very, very major undertake. Within about three days, your earth looks very small. And within a week, it's just another star. And you suddenly are going to realize you are in very deep space and it can be a long time before you can go back.