Since well before humans first set foot on the moon, the idea of reaching out even further and deeper into space has fascinated Americans. One specific planet that has stirred the nation’s imagination and become a focus of our attention is Mars—the planet that is not the closest to Earth, but widely considered one of the most viable candidates for supporting human life.

Our fascination with Mars can be seen across pop culture, literature, and music. David Bowie once famously sang the question, “Is there life on Mars?” Marvin the Martian saw his plans to destroy the Earth repeatedly quashed by the antics of Bugs Bunny in children’s cartoons. The novel, “The Martian” by Andy Weir—following the exploits of fictional astronaut, Mark Watney, after being stranded in a surface habitat on Mars—became an Oscar-nominated film that grossed $630.6 million worldwide.

But our fascination with Mars may soon be more than just the inspiration for popular movies and novels.

In 2017, during his first term in office, President Trump signed White House Space Policy Directive 1, a new space edict that directed NASA to “…lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.” He then doubled down on his Mars ambitions in his second inaugural address in 2025, when he promised that America would, “…pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

These directives led NASA to create a plan and timeline to build and evaluate the technologies needed for a human-led mission to Mars. But why is America dedicating so much time, effort and money to reaching the red planet?

Much To Do To Get…Something

According to Clayton Swope, the deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project and a senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), there are numerous reasons why America wants to lead the new space race to Mars.

"If you think about a place where you might one day envision people living, not just in an expeditionary way, but also having families—that's probably Mars.”-Clayton Swope, CSIS

“If you look at the solar system, there’s no other planet that looks like Earth. The one that looks the most like Earth is Mars,” Swope said. “If you think about a place where you might one day envision people living, not just in an expeditionary way, but also having families —that’s probably Mars.”

This makes Mars the most likely destination for the preservation of the human race should Earth ever become uninhabitable. But there are other, more short-term benefits to making life on Mars a reality.

“There are going to be business and economic reasons. There are going to be natural resources that we can tap into far into the future. There is also an insatiable human desire to learn, to expand and to discover new things,” Swope said. “The potential science and exploration benefits of supporting human life on Mars can lead to that economic benefit. There’s also prestige and honor that comes with being the first.”

But before we can even think about sending humans to Mars, there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome. This endeavor will require technological advancements across numerous areas and disciplines, ranging from propulsion to advanced manufacturing to healthcare.

“There are imposing challenges in spaceflight medicine in getting humans to arrive safely at Mars, after 18 months of travel, in terms of ensuring they are healthy and mobile after all that time in microgravity, and [after being] exposed to radiation from the space environment,” said Chris Johnson, the Director of Legal Affairs and Space Law at the Secure World Foundation. ”Upon arrival, there will be real challenges in sustaining life there. The soil of Mars may be quite toxic with perchlorates, which make any long-term presence on the Martian surface a real challenge.”

According to Swope, the challenge of sustaining life on the surface of Mars is really the limiting factor that has kept us from manned missions to Mars already.

“We have sent many missions to Mars. There are spacecraft on the Martian surface and in orbit around Mars right now. That box has effectively been checked,” Swope said. “How do we do this in a way that can sustain human life? That is the next question. We still need to answer questions regarding resource extraction, resource utilization and the need for communications. All of these requirements are derived from the need to sustain human life.”

While much research and development needs to be done, NASA is already working to develop and evaluate many of the technologies required to make manned missions to Mars a reality. In fact, the agency shared a video in 2020 detailing six advancements it’s working on right now to make human exploration of Mars possible:

Some might be surprised to see communications among the advancements that NASA and its industry partners are working on. However, while surviving toxic soil and subzero temperatures might seem like some of the biggest challenges that need to be overcome to make human exploration of Mars possible, the communications challenge is potentially just as large and just as difficult to surmount.

Can You Hear Me…In 24 Minutes?

While the average American is accustomed to downloading massive files in seconds and getting immediate access to high-definition streamed video content on demand, the sheer distance separating Earth from Mars makes that kind of rapid, high-throughput communication between the two planets nearly impossible. That’s because a signal can take anywhere from two to 24 minutes to travel between the planets, depending on their relative position.

While communication between the Earth and Mars is already possible, thanks mainly to NASA’s Deep Space Network—NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions—the amount of data that will need to be transmitted between the two planets will increase as humans explore and live on the surface of the red planet. The Deep Space Network will invariably be inadequate to meet these increased data requirements.

“NASA’s Deep Space Network is already pretty much at capacity, and it’s hard to imagine freeing up a lot of bandwidth that could be used immediately to deliver ‘always on’ communication for a mission,” Swope said. “You don’t want to leave a period where you can’t communicate with your astronauts, and you always want to prioritize humans.”

A part of Mars will always face away from teleports on Earth, making it impossible to communicate directly from that location to the Earth's surface.

Bandwidth and throughput concerns aside, the rotations of Mars and the Earth also create challenges for enabling “always-on” communication between the two planets. A part of Mars will always face away from teleports on Earth, making it impossible to communicate directly from that location to the Earth’s surface.

“There’s no current way to enable continuous communications with every part of Mars,” said Tim Deaver, vice president of strategic solutions at Mynaric, a manufacturer of laser communication equipment for satellite networks.“There are numerous large telescopes, and NASA has large 30-meter antennas that can communicate with Mars, but they can only do so periodically.”

No Cell Phone Stores for 140 Million Miles

Unfortunately, enabling communications between the Earth and Mars is just one of the many communications challenges that humans must overcome as they begin to explore the red planet. In fact, the Mars communications challenge is really four separate challenges.

“We already see indications of what this could be like when we talk about the moon. [For moon exploration, we need] communications to and from the moon and Earth. We need communications in lunar orbit and communications from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. Then we need communications on the lunar surface,” explained Swope. “Those are the four areas we’ll have to think about for Mars, too. All of those pieces need to be addressed to build a communications architecture that will support human activity on Mars.”

The same terrestrial networks and infrastructure we have invested in on Earth would effectively need to be replicated on Mars, which is something NASA would most likely lack the resources and capability to build.

While communicating between parties on Earth simply requires the purchase of a cellphone and a data plan, enabling communications on Mars would require a bit more heavy lifting. The same terrestrial networks and infrastructure we have invested in on Earth would effectively need to be replicated on Mars, which is something NASA would most likely lack the resources and capability to build.

“NASA is not going to install miles and miles of fiber optic cables and satellite towers on the surface of Mars,” Deaver said. “That takes trucks, diggers, and all the other infrastructure necessary to do that.”

Outernets, Optical Comms, and D2D

Since human exploration of the moon faces many of the same challenges as human exploration of Mars, just at a closer distance to the Earth, the moon provides an excellent testbed for many of the technologies that could be leveraged on and around Mars.

“I actually think that the moon is the next key destination for human spaceflight,” Johnson said. “Any success in human exploration, development, and settlement of Mars is incumbent on first testing key technologies and capabilities on the moon.”

Some of the technologies making their way to the Moon are advancements already being used on Earth. This includes satellites in lower orbits, optical data relays, and the development of direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity—all of which could play a massive role in enabling communications on Mars and between the Earth and Mars.

“While building a terrestrial network infrastructure on Mars might be out of reach, the simpler method is to use satellites that do direct-to-device connectivity,” Deaver said. “Thanks to advancements in optical terminals, these satellites can also communicate with one another, enabling them to cover the surface of Mars with connectivity fairly easily.”

Companies like Rivada are already working to deploy what they call “outernets” around the Earth. These outernets are effectively networks of satellites that surround the globe and pass data among themselves via optical terminals, connecting objects on Earth and in orbit without the need for sophisticated ground terminals or other ground infrastructure.

This same technology could be leveraged on both the Moon and Mars to enable communications on the surface. It could also help keep explorers on Mars connected with the Earth at all times.

While there will always be parts of Mars facing away from the Earth, making communication unavailable, relaying data via optical communication through an outernet surrounding Mars could enable “always-on” communication. According to Deaver, “Satellites that are stationed correctly could enable continuous communications between Mars and Earth with a two- or three-satellite relay.”

Leveraging optical relays between the Earth and Mars could also help overcome the bandwidth challenges facing existing communications solutions, including NASA’s Deep Space Network. Since optical signals can carry more data than radio signals, they could enable higher bandwidth connectivity, although latency would always exist because of the sheer distance separating the planets.

“Could you increase the bandwidth of your network using optical links and relays between the Earth and Mars? Absolutely,” Swope said. “However, you’re still stuck at the speed of light. The limitation of how fast you could get the signal between the two planets is still physics. It’s bound by how fast the signal can travel.”

While advanced satellite capabilities like D2D, optical relays and other technologies could be a solution to communications on Mars and between the Earth and Mars, there is still research and development that needs to be done before they can meet the harsh environments of deep space.

“While optical terminal manufacturers are working to mass produce many of these technologies and make them more available and affordable for NASA, advancements are still needed,” Deaver said. “Ensuring our terminals can operate through the massive temperature range in deep space and stay focused is one of the challenges we face today.”

There are also advancements that need to be made to ensure these technologies and solutions can reach Mars in the first place. This includes manufacturing satellites in space to make them lighter by avoiding the need to harden satellites for launch.

“We need to make satellites light enough that they can travel to Mars without a lot of push. Manufacturing in space is one way to accomplish that,“ Deaver said. “If you don’t have to escape Earth’s gravity first, much of the complicated satellite bus designed to survive launch becomes unnecessary.”

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