The Freedom to Explore - How to Travel to Mars

A concept art from NASA of what a nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft, like the SP-1 Freedom, might look like.

Today, March 24, 2026, NASA announced Space Reactor-1 Freedom, a nuclear-powered ship that’s planned to travel to Mars as early as 2028. Freedom would be the first nuclear-propelled spacecraft launched and it could be the future of exploration in our Solar System.

The Traditional Trip

Traveling to planets beyond our own is a tricky prospect. There’s a reason that humans have never traveled further from Earth than the Moon. But Mars is on the top of our list for places to send humans. As Mars and Earth both orbit the Sun at different distances and different speeds, a trip to Mars isn’t as simple as plotting a linear course from one planet to the other. Up until this point, nearly all Mars missions use a Hohmann transfer orbit to get from planet to planet. What that means is the spacecraft leaves Earth’s orbit tangentially, orbits around the Sun, then intersects Mars’ orbit on the opposite end. This method both minimizes the fuel it takes to travel to Mars, while not taking too long a time. A trip to Mars with this method can be as short as six to nine months.

However, in order to properly utilize a Hohmann transfer, Earth and Mars have to be in the proper orientation to one another. The spacecraft has to intercept Mars, rather than travel directly to it. The two planets are properly aligned for this transfer about every two years and two months.

Freedom

One of our biggest obstacles in crewed missions to Mars or beyond is the mass of the fuel. The heavier a spacecraft, the more fuel it requires. But the more fuel a spacecraft has, the heavier it becomes. This limits the size of liquid-fueled spacecraft designed for long voyages. We can send small solar- or battery-powered probes to the outer reaches of our Solar System, but something that can accommodate humans is far trickier. That’s where Freedom’s nuclear-powered engine comes in. The first of its kind, Freedom’s engines would be powered by a nuclear fission reactor, much like reactors used here on Earth, that generates electricity, which in turn can power electric thrusters. Concepts like this have long been considered, but Freedom would be the first time putting it to use. As it doesn’t need to worry as much about conserving fuel, the nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) of Freedom could even allow it a different flight path to Mars than a Hohmann transfer, which is designed for fuel effeciency, rather than time effeciency, allowing for a quicker journey.

Additionally, the NEP of Freedom’s engines can get the spacecraft moving faster than conventional methods. While the thrust would be far lower energy than traditional thrust, it would be continuous acceleration, always increasing the speed until it has to slow down, rather than just firing in short bursts. This gets to a far greater velocity in the end. In theory, between the increased speed and shortened travel path, it could cut the travel time to Mars in half, which is important not just for the mental health of a Mars-bound crew, but also for their physical health, as there’s radiation in space that can be harmful. The longer an astronaut travels between planets, the more radiation they’ll take in. A shorter trip means less danger from the radiation. While no humans will be aboard the Freedom mission, it will be a proof of concept that could pave the way for the first humans on Mars.

Mission: Skyfall

Ingenuity on the surface of Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

What Freedom will be carrying is the Skyfall mission, a fleet of six mini helicopter drones to scout the planet from above. These drones would be based on the design of Ingenuity, a drone sent to Mars in 2021 as a supplement to the Perseverance rover. The tiny helicopter, with blades only about four feet wide and a body the size of a tissue box, was only designed to last for five flights. Despite that, it made a grand total of 72 flights over the course of three years before it was finally rendered nonoperational when it crash-landed in 2024.

As it takes several minutes for a radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth, Ingenuity couldn’t be piloted remotely, so it instead had to autonomously fly along flight paths sent to it ahead of time. A drone like Ingenuity is a massive advantage in the exploration of the surface of Mars. Its bird’s eye view provides far better images of the planet’s surface for study and it can fly straight over obstacles that would be a barrier to a traditional rover. Additionally, the Skyfall drones would be able to deploy from their capsule mid-descent onto Mars, removing the need for a soft landing and saving costs. By using ground penetrating radar from a low-altitude hover, these drones can map water ice deposits with much higher resolution than an orbiter, identifying the exact spots where future astronauts should dig for evidence of life—or drinking water. The Skyfall mission will expand upon Ingenuity’s unexpected success and give us far more data.

Humans on Mars

But really, what we want to see on Mars is a human. Humans can explore Mars with far greater efficiency and intent than a rover or drone ever could. There’s simply no replacement for boots-on-the-ground science. Not to mention the human need to explore firsthand. Not only is Mars our neighbor, but it has some of the most intriguing questions surrounding it; the foremost of which is the question of life. Did Mars have life? We may not know until we send a human there to find out.

Since the 1950s and the Space Race, NASA has consistently had plans to get humans to Mars within 10 to 30 years from their announcement. 70 years later, and we’re still not there. Ask NASA today, and they’ll tell you their goal is to make it to Mars by the late 2030s. But maybe, with developments like Freedom, this will be the time we actually make it. Perhaps within ten years humans will have finally left their homeworld and traveled to another planet. And from there, the entire Solar System could be open to us.