NASA Has Sent Five Rovers to Mars. When Will Humans Land on the Red Planet?

With its impeccable landing on Thursday, NASA’s Perseverance became the fifth rover to reach Mars — so when can we finally expect the long-held goal of a crewed expedition to materialize? NASA’s current Artemis program is billed as a “Moon to Mars” mission, and acting administrator Steve Jurczyk has reiterated his aspiration of “the mid-to-end of the 2030s” for American boots on the Red Planet. Risk tolerance The feasibility also comes down to how much risk we are willing to tolerate, said G. Scott Hubbard, NASA’s first Mars program director who’s now at Stanford. During the Shuttle era, said Hubbard, “the demand was that the astronauts face no more than three percent increased risk in death.” “They have now raised that — deep space missions are somewhere between 10 and 30 percent, depending on the mission, so NASA’s taking a more aggressive or open posture,” he added. President Joe Biden hasn’t yet outlined his Mars vision, though his spokeswoman Jen Pskai said this month the Artemis program had the administration’s “support.” Still, the agency is facing budget constraints and is not expected to meet its goal of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, which would also push back Mars.