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Article: Human Missions to Mars
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- Space Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Human Missions to Mars
Human flights to Mars will likely be the next major milestone in humankind's expansion into the solar system. Solving the complex problems of Mars' origin and history, such as whether life ever existed there, is likely to require direct scientific exploration by humans. However, sending humans to Mars will not be easy.
Mission Planning
Much of the mission planning for human exploration missions deals with finding appropriate
trajectories
for the trips out to Mars and back to Earth. Earth revolves around the Sun about twice as fast as Mars does. A spacecraft launched from Earth must "lead" Mars, aiming at the place where that planet will be in 5 to 9 months. ...