Astronauts to Mars

ASTRONAUTS TO MARS
How soon will astronauts go to Mars? Those going on the trip are now making preparations. Several groups are in the race to Mars, including private industry and NASA. China wants to do everything on their own and does not want to participate. Other countries may join in the initiative to putting the first colonists on Mars.

Aiming for Time Travel to the Future
Spacecraft don’t launch directly at Mars; that would use up too much fuel. Instead, spacecraft launch towards the point that Mars is going to be in the future. They start at Earth’s orbit, and then raise their orbit until they intersect the orbit of Mars; right when Mars is at that point. The spacecraft can then land on Mars or go into orbit around it. This journey takes about 250 days.

Looking at the Mars chart, it looks like a very popular place with many USA and Russian spacecraft orbiting and landing there. A good number have failed to reach Mars. The closest Mars is to the Earth is around 35 million miles during a close and favorable opposition. Miss the closer oppositions every two years and the aphelion distance of Mars to the Earth can be a staggering 249 million miles away. The year 2018 is a good year to arrive at Mars when it's only 35.8 million miles away.

Here’s a list of Mars Oppositions from 2007-2020 (source)
Dec. 24, 2007 – 88.2 million km (54.8 million miles)
Jan. 29, 2010 – 99.3 million km (61.7 million miles)
Mar. 03, 2012 – 100.7 million km (62.6 million miles)
Apr. 08, 2014 – 92.4 million km (57.4 million miles)
May. 22, 2016 – 75.3 million km (46.8 million miles)
Jul. 27. 2018 – 57.6 million km (35.8 million miles)
Oct. 13, 2020 – 62.1 million km (38.6 million miles)

Data to the Year 2037
Date of Opposition
Feb 12 1995
Mar 17 1997
Apr 24 1999
Jun 13 2001
Aug 28 2003
Nov 07 2005
Dec 24 2007
Jan 29 2010
Mar 03 2012
Apr 08 2014
May 22 2016
Jul 27 2018
Oct 13 2020
Dec 08 2022
Jan 16 2025
Feb 19 2027
Mar 25 2029
May 04 2031
Jun 27 2033
Sep 15 2035
Nov 19 2037

Date of Closest Encounter
Feb 11 1995
Mar 20 1997
May 01 1999
Jun 21 2001
Aug 27 2003
Oct 30 2005
Dec 18 2007
Jan 27 2010
Mar 05 2012
Apr 14 2014
May 30 2016
Jul 31 2018
Oct 06 2020
Dec 01 2022
Jan 12 2025
Feb 20 2027
Mar 29 2029
May 12 2031
Jul 05 2033
Sep 11 2035
Nov 11 2037

Closest Distance (AUs / Millions of Miles)
0.67569 / 62.8
0.65938 / 61.3
0.57846 / 53.8
0.45017 / 41.8
0.37272 / 34.6
0.46406 / 43.1
0.58935 / 54.8
0.66398 / 61.7
0.67368 / 62.6
0.61756 / 57.4
0.50321 / 46.8
0.38496 / 35.8
0.41492 / 38.6
0.54447 / 50.6
0.64228 / 59.7
0.67792 / 63.0
0.64722 / 60.2
0.55336 / 51.4
0.42302 / 39.3
0.38041 / 35.4
0.49358 / 45.9