When Are Humans Going To Mars? NASA Official Says Red Planet Is ‘Primary Mission’

NASA is making a trip to the Red Planet its top priority, according to one senior official at the space agency. While delivering a speech in Chennai, India Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Larry James, the deputy director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the space agency had its sights set on Mars for the near future.

“Sending humans to orbit Mars is our primary mission now,” James said during the speech entitled “Exploring Our World, the Solar System and the Universe.” “We are working on the human and rocket technologies required for the long mission.”

Read: Mars Base Camp Planed For 2028

James said a human trip to the planet would take longer than the estimated five to six months because the mission would need to wait for Earth and Mars to align in the best position.

“We are talking about two to three years to orbit Mars and come back,” he said. “So how do you keep the crew alive that long in terms of protecting them from radiation and ensure they have supplies? So a lot of work still has to be done just to make sure the crew safety.”

NASA was in the process of developing new rocket technology that would successfully take humans to Mars.

“NASA is in the middle of building the rocket and testing its components,” he said of the technology, called the Space Launch System, or SLS. “The first launch will be in 2019.”

NASA isn’t alone in its endeavor to get humans to the Red Planet as fast as possible. Global security aerospace company Lockheed Martin announced in March it planned to set up a base camp on Mars by 2028, orbiting astronauts around the planet for three years. The astronauts would, ideally, utilize remote controlled rovers to explore the planet’s surface in an attempt to discern the best spot for humans to land on a future mission.

“This is all doable in the next 10 to 12 years,” Tony Antonelli, former NASA space shuttle pilot and leader of advanced civil space programs for Lockheed Martin, said at the announcement. “All we have to do is decide we’re going to go collectively, together – government, industry, international participation.”

All the technologies necessary to facilitate such a mission are already available or in development, Antonelli noted.

Read: Life May Have Originated On Mars And Traveled To Earth, NASA Engineer Says

While the United States is still the only country to land a spacecraft on Mars, other nations have the planet on their radar as well. The United Arab Emirates announced in February it would be the first country to build a city on Mars—and it would have it done in the next 100 years. The project, entitled Mars 2117, aimed to put a “Chicago-sized” city on the planet.

“Mars 2117 is a seed we are sowing today to reap the fruit of new generations led by a passion for science and advancing human knowledge,” said Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum.