INTERACTIVE FEATURE

Scroll slowly. You have about seven months.

Step 1 · Launch

Wait for the window

Earth and Mars line up for an efficient trip only about every 26 months. Miss it, and you wait two more years.

Step 2 · Leave Earth

Escape at 25,000 mph

To break free of Earth’s gravity, a spacecraft needs to reach roughly 25,000 miles per hour.

Step 3 · Cruise

Seven months of nothing

The trip takes about seven months. Engineers steer with small engine burns along the way.

Step 4 · Arrive

Seven minutes of terror

Landing takes about seven minutes from the top of the atmosphere to the ground — too fast for anyone on Earth to help, because signals take several minutes each way.

Step 5 · Explore

A day lasts 24 hours 37 minutes

On Mars you would weigh about 38% of your Earth weight. Sunsets there glow blue.

BY THE NUMBERS

Half the width, a little over a third of the gravity, and a day that’s 37 minutes longer.

0.0 h

Length of a day

0 %

Of Earth’s gravity

0

Small moons

0 mo

Typical trip

Rounded figures.

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