QUESTION:
What are some problems with human travel to Mars? Will people survive?

ANSWER from Steve Wall on November 17, 1997:
There are multiple issues to face when sending people to Mars.  Two
important categories are travel in space and living on the surface of Mars. 
As far as space travel goes, it is important to provide everything you have
to have to live: food, air, exercise, companionship and more.  We will look
at these things on the International Space Station, where people will live
for extended periods and will get used to being in the space environment.

The second category is living and working on Mars, where all the above
problems exist, but where one also has to be able to work.  Moving about is
an obvious need, but people also will have to have laboratories, living
space, and the ability to grow food and get water and air.

Will man survive?  The answer has to be "yes" before we go, which means we
will need lots of practice missions.  These will include much work on the
space station and in shorter missions, and will also mean a number of
unmanned missions to Mars to find out more about what the environment there
is like.

Check out these addresses for more information:
http://www.marsacademy.com/explor.htm
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/nav/