Why Landing Humans on Mars is so Hard

In this episode, we move beyond the "backyard" of the Moon to the daunting physics of a crewed mission to the Red Planet. While the Apollo missions were a singular triumph of the 20th century, reaching Mars is exponentially more difficult, pushing the absolute limits of modern engineering, biology, and the "tyranny" of the rocket equation.

Planners must build ships that are "just safe enough," accepting higher risks of cancer and physical decline as the price of admission for becoming a multi-planetary species.