News Planetary Science

Space experts say sending humans to Mars worth the risk

Summit takes stock of hurdles, technologies, support needed to reach Red Planet by 2030s

Simulated image of Mars

MISSION TO MARS  By the 2030s, NASA and the aerospace industry want to send a crew to explore Mars, seen in this simulated image based on data from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

WASHINGTON — There’s a long-standing joke that NASA is always 20 years from putting astronauts on Mars.