How Close Are We To a Mars Mission? (thenewstack.io)

destinyland writes: NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s," reads the official NASA web site. But National Geographic points out that "the details haven't been announced, in large part because such a massive, long-term spending project would require the unlikely support of several successive U.S. presidents." And yet on November 4th, NASA put out a call for astronaut applications "in anticipation of returning human spaceflight launches to American soil, and in preparation for the agency's journey to Mars," and they're currently experimenting with growing food in space. And this week they not only ordered the first commercial mission to the International Space Station, but also quietly announced that they've now partnered with 22 private space companies.

Comments

Asking the wrong question

[Required Snark]

It's not how close we are. It's how much money we're willing to spend to get there.

My guess is that absent any major change on this planet, no group or combination of groups that has enough money is willing to spend it on the trip.

So the answer is far away.