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Question
How long will it take to travel to mars?
Most spacecraft go to Mars using what is called a minimum energy trajectory. Such a path is an imaginary ellipse that touches Earth's orbit at departure and then touches Mars' orbit at arrival. Such a path allows the maximum payload to be carried by a spacecraft while still using conventional rocket engines. Using this method, it usually takes about 9 months to get to Mars. Opportunities to launch come up about every 26 months. For a picture of this kind of trajectory and more detail, see http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/qadir/q2811.html Anna Lee Strachan, NASA Astrobiology Institute
May 1, 2002
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