One of the central themes of Immortelle is the first manned mission to Mars, which does have astronauts land on the planet but in circumstances that make the historicity of the event hardly worth bothering about.
But in the real world can we really, really do it? From the POV of technology, not quite yet. Getting a lander on Mars with current techniques works for anything weighing a ton or less. The Curiosity Rover is about the limit. Heat shield, parachute and landing rockets by themselves won't work for a spacecraft that has to be large enough for a complement of humans. Say ten tons or so. There are theoretical ways of overcoming the problem but no tech has yet been developed that can demonstrably do the job. No matter. The world is full of clever people. We'll lick it eventually. What we won't lick however is the cost. Getting people to Mars and back to Earth in one piece will be way more expensive than the Apollo programme. Probably four times more expensive. According to this Wikipedia source - which I've seen corroborated elsewhere - a manned Mars landing will cost at least $650 billion in contemporary money, though probably much more. Say a trillion dollars. The entire Apollo programme from 1960 to 1973 cost about $280 billion in contemporary money. In 1966 NASA's budget reached 4,41% of the entire US Federal budget. That's more than many nations spend on their military. Why so much massive spending to get a couple of men on the moon? There was a unique combination of circumstances in the 60s that enabled the Moon landings to become such an overwhelming priority. First, a healthy and growing US economy which left plenty of cash available for such an undertaking; secondly, a boundless optimism and enthusiasm for progress which the government was happy to foster by spectacular technological feats like getting men on the moon; thirdly, a cold war that had nearly become a hot one, and in which the US had been humiliated twice by Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin. To wipe out that shame and reassure the free world that America was still Top Nation no expense would be spared. We haven't seen a combination like that since. The political desire to get kudos by showing off technological superiority is largely gone. The new cold war between East and West is a grimly practical business, using economic power or just naked military force to cripple one's adversary. It's the difference between Queensbury rules and streetfighting. A Mars landing means less and less to politicians in the new political environment, especially as the prestige that space technology once had is waning. The truth is that the tech is reaching its natural limits. We consider it a major media event when SpaceX gets a few astronauts into LEO - something that NASA itself did for decades and is now doing via a subcontractor. And there is no way for the forseeable future that NASA will get the money to be able to pay anyone to fly people to Mars. That giant leap for mankind may have been as far as leaps go.
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