NASA is a step further to sending humans to Mars

It'll be later than that by a little bit. Right now the plan is a lunar flyby between 2021-2023 and then the asteroid redirect mission in 2026.

Nothing planned after that yet

>>8280493
spacex supposedly wants to get the first humans on mars by 2025. nasa astronauts will probably be the ones going. sls is a shit show.

>>8281464
>sls is a shit show

correction: SLS is a way to keep paying pet contractors with the promise of a possible maybe sometime in the somewhat near future trip to Mars.

>>8280493
>nasa_blaze_it_420.jpg

>>8280493

SLS will be flying by 2023 at the latest, same for Orion. Once that is done all NASA needs is to develop a lander (Altair) so we can go back to the moon. This is likely to happen in the mid or late 2020s.

Mars missions are a bit more complicated due to the necessity of interplanetary stages. NASA will have to develop this, and probably an orbital fuel depot as well. And a Mars lander. So a Mars mission probably won't happen until the 2030s or 2040s.

>>8281464

SpaceX will probably get plenty of probes onto Mars by 2025, but manned missions outside of LEO are unlikely due to the immense R&D costs. NASA, despite being the shitshow it is, has a lot more resources than a private company (and can afford to fuck up).

>>8280493
I think they should send monkeys first.

>>8280493
How are they going to protect the humans from radiation?

>>8283141
Orbital beach umbrella

>>8280493
Cool, call me when they finally send balloon probes to Venus.

We could build a Bernal Sphere for the same cost, which would cut 90% off Mars mission costs.

>>8283487
We would have to set up a process of mining asteroids, pulverizing rock into soil, and rotating the thing without breaking it apart.

>>8283513
Bernal spheres traditionally would be built out of mined metals, not carved out of asteroids. Either from near-Earth asteroids or lunar materials sent up via mass driver.