Going to the moon was easy compared to a Mars trip. The distance to the moon is relatively constant and is less than a light second away making communication similar to a slightly delayed phone call. The distance to Mars is highly variable being anywhere from around 4 to well over 20 light minutes away. The crew would have to deal with any emergency on their own since you could not have a simple back and forth chat with mission control like the good old days.
check that just over a light second to the moon not less
“” “Going to the moon was easy compared to a Mars trip. The distance to the moon is relatively constant and is less than a light second away making communication similar to a slightly delayed phone call. The distance to Mars is highly variable being anywhere from around 4 to well over 20 light minutes away. The crew would have to deal with any emergency on their own since you could not have a simple back and forth chat with mission control like the good old days.”” “
Nothing of the above it impossible. Long orbital missions is the evidence that the man can autonomously stay in space for long enough for a Mars flight.
Getting there is not an awfully impossible task because it is now exactly 47 years since first controlled soft landing on Mars.
Getting back is rather akin to getting back from the Moon with Apollo with the exception that the larger booster needed.