For more than 75 years, people have been fascinated by the idea of sending humans to Mars. Between 1950 and 2000, over 1,000 mission studies explored what a crewed journey might look like. Some were led by NASA and industry experts, while others came from passionate individuals and private groups determined to imagine the future. I’ve traced the history of these studies up through 2023, and almost every design was ultimately judged impractical. But things could be about to change. If SpaceX’s Starship proves itself in flight, it may finally break past the old limits of space travel and open the door to a new era of human exploration.
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