QUESTION: 
How does a ship take off from Mars after a mission?  Doesn't it take a lot
of money and how do they get it up straight enough to take off?

ANSWER from Charles Whetsel on April 14, 1997:
The short answer is "It doesn't."  So far, nothing ever sent to Mars (or
anywhere else except the Moon) has ever come back to earth.  You are
correct in assuming that it is almost just as hard to launch into space
from the surface of Mars as it is from the surface of the earth.  It will
probably be at least 7-10 years before we try to launch a mission from the
earth which is capable of landing on Mars and the returning back to the
earth (unmanned).