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Well I mean going to Mars isn't that hard per se, a fair few countries have done it... but carrying enough supplies and shielding to last people 2 years until t

Well I mean going to Mars isn't that hard per se, a fair few countries have done it... but carrying enough supplies and shielding to last people 2 years until the return trip and then actually getting back are way harder problems. Seeing Starship get burnthrough on these suborbital launches really shows how hard it'll be to do Mars return entry with a fair few extra km/s.

diebeforei485 2y ago
Only the US and China have landed successfully on Mars. China achieved this in 2021. Russia/USSR tried multiple times and didn't succeed. Other countries have sent satellites to orbit around Mars, which is not the same thing.
- spacesanjeet 2y ago
  I think that the number of countries reaching Mars (lander or orbiter) is in single digits and thus when talking about how hard it is to reach Mars and then come back, both of the scenarios kind of hold similar weights.
- cyberax 2y ago
  > Russia/USSR tried multiple times and didn't succeed. Pedant mode: the USSR did land softly on Mars, but the lander got caught in a dust storm and was not able to transmit back the data ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3 ).
  - m4rtink 2y ago
    The european Beagle 2 probe apparently survived as well, but failed to deploy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2 But other than that, yeah, there are two Schiaparelli craters now on Mars. :P (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiaparelli_EDM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiaparelli_EDM)
mrandish 2y ago
Getting to Mars is hard but not that hard compared to getting a large payload to Mars surface and back to Earth. Some people may assume Mars return is around twice as hard but it's orders of magnitude harder. And that's before even contemplating doing so with a cargo of humans and the necessary tonnage for them to survive on Mars at least 26 months.

diebeforei485 2y ago

Only the US and China have landed successfully on Mars. China achieved this in 2021. Russia/USSR tried multiple times and didn't succeed. Other countries have sent satellites to orbit around Mars, which is not the same thing.

spacesanjeet 2y ago
I think that the number of countries reaching Mars (lander or orbiter) is in single digits and thus when talking about how hard it is to reach Mars and then come back, both of the scenarios kind of hold similar weights.
cyberax 2y ago
> Russia/USSR tried multiple times and didn't succeed. Pedant mode: the USSR did land softly on Mars, but the lander got caught in a dust storm and was not able to transmit back the data ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3 ).
- m4rtink 2y ago
  The european Beagle 2 probe apparently survived as well, but failed to deploy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2 But other than that, yeah, there are two Schiaparelli craters now on Mars. :P (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiaparelli_EDM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiaparelli_EDM)

mrandish 2y ago

Getting to Mars is hard but not that hard compared to getting a large payload to Mars surface and back to Earth. Some people may assume Mars return is around twice as hard but it's orders of magnitude harder. And that's before even contemplating doing so with a cargo of humans and the necessary tonnage for them to survive on Mars at least 26 months.