“Risky space travel is out of the question.”
The “next level” space travel currently being discussed, worked on, planned for at the national political level, and beginning to be funded, is not just “risky”. It’s suicidal. This will become painfully apparent, such that the Moon phase and the ultimate Mars objective won’t even make it fully out of the starting blocks.
Risky? That’s a euphemism.
Hey it’s only an average of 140 million miles to Mars with the most optimal (but rare) closest distance of 34 million miles.
I don’t know what (or when) they’ve calculated the shortest round-trip but that’s a lot of Tang (and water) to be packed. Oh I guess you can recycle the water....but.....
Maybe a few tons of granola bars.