Private and public space agencies plan to land humans on Mars within decades. Companies such as SpaceX, Mars One and NASA have all expressed interest in making a trek to one of Earth’s closest neighbors.

Timeframes in which humans could arrive on the red planet vary. Elon Musk of SpaceX has set a very short timeframe of landing humans on Mars in 2024. Other timeframes are more realistic, with Mars One aiming for the year 2031.

The plans on what to do when humans get to Mars range from taking samples of the planet to leaving the humans there for colonization. One of the main problems of that would be how to sustain life. Mars’s atmosphere is not habitable. However, there are plans on what could be done to solve that problem. One solution is to have artificial support, but that would not be a permanent solution to colonizing Mars. However, if humans were to find a way to strengthen Mars’s atmosphere, that would be a giant step in the right direction.

Even as some people are looking for Mars to become a stopping point, others are looking to return to where humans have already been. Only 12 people have walked the surface of the moon, the last being in 1972, and some are saying that building lunar stations there needs to be a step that we take first, rather than trying to land on Mars. Indeed, some experts believe setting the moon as a first priority is a sensible step. Humans could build and test inventions on a more welcoming ball of rock rather than one that is 33.9 million miles away.

Humans have a lot of progress to make before finally stepping foot on Mars. But with continued advancement of technology, humans will quite possibly be able to see humans step foot on Mars in the near future.