NASA's Journey to Mars: Past Missions, Present Technology and Future Challenges

Answers to some of humanity’s fundamental questions about life beyond Earth include:

Was Mars home to microbial life?
Is it today?
Could it safe for home for humans?
What can it teach us about life elsewhere in the cosmos or how life began on Earth?
What can it teach us about Earth’s past, present, and future?

The journey to Mars is an historic pioneering endeavour – exploration made possible by a sustained effort technological innovation - leading scientific and exploration missions beyond the Low-Earth orbit. The revolutionary Curiosity sky crane placed nearly a metric ton – about the size of a small car – safely on the surface of Mars. But we need technologies to land 10 times that weight with humans – and then be able to get them off Mars. For decades, the agency and partners have sent orbiters, landers, and rovers, dramatically increasing the knowledge of the Red Planet and paving way for human explorers. Building on the robotic legacy, the human exploration of Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move further from Earth. Earth Reliant, the Proving Ground, and Earth Independent.

Mars is the next tangible frontier for human exploration, and it’s an achievable goal. There are challenges to pioneering Mars, but they are solvable. We are well on our way to getting there, landing there, and living there. Boot prints on Mars anyone? Pioneering Mars will enhance innovations that benefit entire mankind.

Join us at the Institution's London HQ to hear how NASA are addressing and overcoming the engineering challenges to get man on Mars.