NASA plans to send humans on a scientific round trip to Mars by 2035.
The journey will take about six to seven months each way and cover up to 402 million kilometers each way.
Astronauts can spend up to 500 days on the planet's surface before returning to Earth.
It is reported that NASA's Artemis program plans to return humans to the Moon this decade to practice and prepare for a mission to Mars in the 2030s.
While NASA has several reasons for pursuing such an ambitious mission, the biggest is scientific exploration and discovery.
There are many mysteries to investigate on the red planet, including why Mars looks the way it does today, and whether there has ever been life, past or present.
Geology of Mars
Mars is a geologically and atmospherically intriguing planet.
It formed with the rest of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago, writes yahoonews, according to Telegraph.
About 3.8 billion years ago, around the same time that life was forming on Earth, early Mars was very similar to Earth.
It had liquid water on its surface in the form of oceans, lakes and rivers and possessed a denser atmosphere.
While there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars today, scientists have spotted evidence of lakes, rivers and even a coast.
Today, the atmosphere of Mars is very thin and about 95% carbon dioxide.
It is filled with atmospheric dust from the surface, which gives the Martian atmosphere its characteristic reddish color.
Scientists know very little about the planet's surface from sending robotic missions, but there are still many interesting geological features to investigate more closely.
As reported, these features could tell researchers more about the formation of the solar system.
The northern and southern hemispheres of Mars look very different.
Mars also has the largest volcanoes that scientists have observed in the solar system.
Its surface is filled with deep craters from the impacts of asteroids and meteors.
So sending astronauts to study these features could help researchers understand how and when major events occurred during Mars' early history.
NASA has formed a panel called the Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group to plan the next mission.
The panel came up with recommendations on several important scientific questions for human investigation on Mars.
One question is whether there is life on the planet today.
Remember, life on Earth formed about 3.8 billion years ago, when Earth and Mars were similar-looking planets that both had abundant liquid water and Mars had a denser atmosphere.
Another question is what kind of environmental changes caused Mars to lose the abundant liquid water on its surface, as well as some of its atmosphere.
These questions, along with other recommendations from the panel, fed into NASA's architectural plan for sending humans to Mars.
How to get to Mars?
To send people to Mars and return them safely to Earth, NASA has developed a new, very powerful vehicle called the Space Launch System and a new human transport spacecraft called Orion.
To prepare and train astronauts to live and explore Mars, NASA created a new program to return humans to the Moon, called the Artemis program.
Artemis astronauts will live and work on the Moon for months to prepare for living and working on Mars.
Since the Moon is 386,000 kilometers from Earth, it will act as a training ground for future human exploration of Mars.
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