Researcher Finds Possible Shortcut to Mars That Could Cut Trip to 153 Days
Getting to Mars and back currently takes about three years when you factor in wait times for the right orbital windows. A Brazilian researcher thinks he found a way to do it in five months.
Marcelo de Oliveira Souza, a cosmologist at the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro, published findings in the journal Acta Astronautica showing a potential shortcut to Mars based on the orbital path of a near-Earth asteroid called 2001 CA21. The asteroid crosses the orbits of both Earth and Mars on its path around the sun. Souza figured if a rock can travel that route naturally, a spacecraft might be able to follow a similar line.
His analysis identified 2031 as potentially the best year to attempt this kind of trip, with two possible round-trip profiles — one clocking in at about 153 days and another at around 226 days. Compare that to the nearly three years a conventional round trip currently requires and the difference is significant.
There is a catch. A big one. Either option would require a spacecraft traveling at speeds far beyond anything we can currently build or land safely. So this is theoretical for now — but the kind of theoretical that space agencies can actually use when planning trajectories based on how Earth and Mars move relative to each other.
Why Getting to Mars Is So Complicated
Mars isn't sitting still waiting for us. It's constantly moving around the sun at a different speed than Earth, which means the distance between the two planets is always changing. On average Mars is about 140 million miles away but that number shifts constantly.
The best launch windows — when the two planets are closest and on the same side of the sun — only come around once every 26 months. During that window, a one-way trip takes seven to ten months. The problem for any crewed mission is that astronauts can't just turn around and come back immediately. They have to wait for another return window to open up, which stretches the whole mission to nearly three years. That's a long time for humans to be in deep space dealing with radiation, muscle loss, isolation, and everything else that comes with it.
Cutting that down to 153 days would change the entire calculus of human Mars exploration.
What NASA Is Already Planning
While Souza's shortcut is still theoretical, NASA is moving on Mars with concrete plans that are getting closer by the year.
In 2028 the agency plans to launch the first nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars — the Space Reactor-1 vehicle. It's expected to reach Mars in 2030 and will deploy three small helicopters to survey the surface for potential human landing sites and use radar to search for underground water sources.
The nuclear fission technology powering it is considered crucial for Mars operations because the planet's notorious dust storms can block sunlight for weeks at a time, making solar power unreliable.
The broader context is NASA's Artemis program — currently focused on returning humans to the moon — which is designed as a stepping stone toward deeper space travel including eventually Mars. Every moon landing teaches something about how to keep humans alive far from Earth for extended periods. That knowledge feeds directly into how a Mars mission would work.
NASA has its eyes on sending the first humans to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Whether Souza's shortcut trajectory plays any role in how they get there remains to be seen — but the fact that someone found a potentially viable faster route just as the planning is getting serious is the kind of thing that tends to get attention at space agencies.
A 153-day round trip to Mars. Five months there and back. That used to sound like science fiction. It still kind of does. But the math exists now and someone is going to keep working on it.
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