Trip to Mars Simulator: Pass the Moon, Meet Phobos and Olympus Mons

01

How far is Mars, and how long does the real trip take?

The distance changes all the time, because Earth and Mars circle the Sun at different speeds. At their closest the two planets are about 54.6 million km apart (34 million miles); at their farthest, on opposite sides of the Sun, about 401 million km (249 million miles). On average Mars orbits 228 million km from the Sun, 1.5 times farther out than Earth, and sunlight takes about 13 minutes to get there.

distance from Earth, closest to farthest

54.6–401 million km

a typical trip with today's rockets

7–10 months

between launch opportunities

about 26 months

Why real trips take months

Spacecraft do not fly straight at Mars. They are launched into an orbit around the Sun that meets the planet months later, which saves an enormous amount of fuel. NASA puts a typical direct trip at seven to ten months. Perseverance, for example, launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on February 18, 2021.

The planets have to be in the right places when you leave, so launch windows are rare: Earth laps Mars about once every 26 months. Radio messages are slow too: depending on the distance, a signal needs roughly 3 to 22 minutes to cross between the planets, so rovers cannot be steered live from Earth: they follow commands sent in advance.

02

The route: a Moon flyby, then the Red Planet

Your flight starts like every LIFTONAUT tour: the GO/NO-GO poll, the countdown, liftoff, Max-Q, stage separation and orbit, with the first minutes of the climb in real time. Then the ship leaves orbit and passes the Moon before the long cruise to Mars.

Time is compressed, distances are not. The planets sit where they really are on the day of your flight, computed from NASA/JPL orbital elements, and the guide tells you how long the same leg would have taken in real time.

Mars's thin air and its color

As you arrive, the planet fills the window: rust-colored plains, dark volcanic areas and white polar caps. Mars is red because iron minerals in its dust have rusted. Its air is thin, about 95% carbon dioxide, with a surface pressure less than 1% of Earth's, so it cannot hold much heat: the average is around −60 °C.

03

Phobos and Deimos: the two small moons of Mars

Mars has two moons, both discovered by the astronomer Asaph Hall in August 1877. Their names mean fear (Phobos) and dread (Deimos). They are small, dark and lumpy, and the tour flies past both.

• Phobos measures about 27 × 22 × 18 km and orbits only about 6,000 km above the surface, closer than any other known moon to its planet. It circles Mars three times a day and is creeping inward by about 1.8 meters every hundred years. In roughly 50 million years it will crash into Mars or break up into a ring.
• Deimos is even smaller, about 15 × 12 × 11 km, and takes 30 hours to go around once. Partly filled craters make its surface look smoother than Phobos.

04

Olympus Mons and the rover sites

During the flyby, discreet markers show three places on the surface, at their real coordinates. The first is Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the Solar System: about 600 km across, with its summit caldera roughly 24 km above the surrounding plains, nearly three times the height of Mount Everest.

Where the rovers landed

The other two markers are rover landing sites. Curiosity touched down in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater, an ancient lake bed, on February 18, 2021, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, and has been collecting rock samples for future study.

The first close-up pictures of Mars came from Mariner 4, which flew past in July 1965. The photos you see during the tour are real NASA images, credited on screen.

05

Tour details: about 12 minutes, €2.99, 10 seats

The Mars tour lasts about 12 minutes, from the GO/NO-GO poll to touchdown on the same pad, and a seat costs €2.99. Each rocket carries ten passengers, every seat faces the five windows, and departures leave every ten minutes.

• Seven cameras, from the cabin and the window to a chase camera and the map, with an automatic director that cuts like a live broadcast.
• Mission Control voices and a guide, voiced in English and Romanian, with on-screen text in five languages.
• Real NASA and ESA photos with their credits, and a source for every number.

For a longer flight, the Giants continue to Jupiter and Saturn and the Grand Tour visits every planet. The free trial flight covers liftoff, staging and the trip to the Moon.