What are the technical challenges in sending a man to Mars?

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX believes we'll be able to go there by 2020, but there are others who believe 2037. So, we have some years before we actually take this on. Listed below are some challenges: ksnn.larc.nasa.gov/webtext.cfm?unit=chal... "NASA's primary concern with a mission to Mars is the safety of the astronauts.

NASA researchers can break the crew's time in space into three risk environments. " Would you want to risk someone's life or your life, just to visit Mars, a planet that we have yet to find life on? Until man goes on Mars, you can look at Mars at Google Mars: http://www.google.com/mars Watch the video below as well.

There are a few challenges: 1. The cost, it's not cheap to go to Mars, it's very expensive. This is probably the main challenge.2.It takes 7 months to get there, and 7 months to get back.

Just think how equipped you'd have to be to survive 7 months with enough food.3. We don't know if we have all of the technology that protects our astronauts from radiation exposure, so yes space radiation is a problem.4. We don't have have people who are able to live on Mars for a long period of time.

If we would go there, we would not be able to live healthily in this atmosphere without extra equipment.5. Not too many astronauts really are passionate about going this far. This is not something too many would want to do until it's proven we can sustain life there.

We have enough challenges visiting the moon, and people do not want to isolate themselves on Mars.

There are many things that would have to be worked out, but as far as I can tell there are no fundamental technical challenges that couldn't be overcome. The issues that would prevent a manned Mars mission would not be so much technical as financial and political. Namely things like: - Would we be willing to spend the amount of money it would take?

- Would we be willing to expose astronauts to the risks involved? - Would we be willing to spend the amount of money needed to mitigate the risks? For example some of the issues that are sometimes cited are the fact that the mission could not easily be aborted if anything went wrong, and that we don't know all that much about long term radiation exposure risks in space.

Also the medical effects of being in low gravity for such a long period of time, and the psychological effects of the isolation and confinement are somewhat unknown. In all these cases the challenges are not fundamentally technical. You could either choose to take the risks, or spend what it would take to avoid them.E.g.

Building not only a Mars mission ship, but a backup recovery ship in case of problems, so doubling the cost or more. Or building a ship with heavy radiation shielding, which would drive up the cost of the mission, but reduce the risk. As David Scott, commander of Apollo 15, put it in 2002: "Is the technology available to go to Mars?

The answer is yes. " -- Quote People will one day step on Mars but perhaps not for hundreds of years, says an Apollo astronaut. David Scott, the seventh man to walk on the Moon, was mission commander of Apollo 15 in 1971.

But he says going to Mars will be 10 times more difficult and costly, and there is currently little incentive to commit the resources. He says, however, that he has no doubt that people will eventually land on the Red Planet. "Is the technology available to go to Mars?

The answer is yes," he told an audience at the Royal Society in London, UK. "The adventure is what will drive us in the long term," he added. "The long term will be hundreds of years." -- /Quote http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2316433.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7116834.stm http://www.thespacereview.com/article/602/1.

Its not technical challeng Its very technical challeng. Step one need to build a space ship that can get to mars and back. Step two it takes a long time to get to mars/and how much gas to get to mars and final Step it can lead to mass of Money to pay to get a man on Mars.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.