Manned Mission To Mars - Preparedness

Preparedness

A number of nations and organizations have long-term intentions to send humans to Mars. The state of their readiness is summarized below.

• The United States has a number of missions currently exploring Mars, with a sample-return planned for the future. The US does not currently have a launcher capable of sending humans to Mars, however, the Space Launch System could be that vehicle. The Orion spacecraft, currently under development by NASA, could ferry astronauts from the surface of Earth to join a Mars-bound expedition in Earth orbit and then back to Earth's surface once the expedition has returned from Mars. NASA has used the Haughton impact crater on Devon Island as a proving ground due to the crater's similarity with Martian geology. According to New Scientist, an argon plasma-based VASIMR rocket could reduce the transit time to less than 40 days.
• The European Space Agency has sent robotic probes, and has long-term plans to send humans but has not yet built a human-capable launcher. There is a proposal to convert ESA's existing Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for crewed launches.
• Russia (and previously the Soviet Union) has sent a large number of probes. It can send humans into Earth-Orbit and has extensive experience with long-term manned orbital space flight due to its space station programs. A simulation of a manned Mars mission, called Mars-500, was completed in Russia in November 2011.
• Japan has sent one robotic mission to Mars, the Nozomi (のぞみ).
• China's mission to Mars, the Yinghuo-1 space probe, was lost with Russia's sample return mission to Phobos, Fobos-Grunt.
• India plans to launch an unmanned mission to Mars.