How long would it take to get from Earth to Mars?

Answer 1

NASA launched a robotic spacecraft called New Horizons (See links below) in January 2006. It is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015. It will have taken nine and a half years to get from Earth to Pluto.

Answer 2

The answer depends on many factors. If you wait for minimum fuel consuming orbits, you can look up the answer in Hohman Ellipse Transfer Data. If you want to know how long it takes light to reach these places, it depends upon their positions. For Mars, light (radio waves) can reach it from earth in under twenty minutes. To Pluto it would be somewhere around 5.5 hours.

For a spacecraft using gravity assist, it can take as little as ten years. New Horizons was launched January 19th, 2006, and should pass Pluto in 2016, on its way out to the Kuiper Belt.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Answer 3

The times it would take to travel from Earth to Mars depends on a number of factors, including:

• Where both Earth and Mars are located in their orbits when you depart (i.e. how "aligned" they are)
• If you take a direct route or an indirect route
• The speed at which the spacecraft is travelling

Past missions to Mars have taken anywhere from 150 to 300 days. For example:

• Viking 1 - 335 days
• Viking 2 - 360 days
• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - 210 days
• Phoenix Lander - 295 days
• Curiosity Lander - 253 days
• Mariner 6 - 156 days
• Mariner 7 - 131 days

Answer 4

It takes 977 years

Answer 5

7 months