How close are we to reaching the Red Planet?

Organizations such as NASA and SpaceX have long shared the ambition of reaching Mars. It is, after all, the most viable option for human habitation, said Grant Denn, Ph.D., a Physics professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

So when President Donald Trump declared during his inauguration speech in January that the U.S. would send an astronaut to Mars by the end of his term in 2029, it sent imaginations soaring.

But are we closer than ever to reaching the Red Planet? Denn says we’re not getting there any time soon. “A trip to Mars is within our reach,” Denn said, “but not for another 40 years at least. We need continued investment, rigorous testing and a solid plan for sustainability.”

Sending humans to Mars is incredibly complex, Denn added, requiring the overcoming of significant technological, financial and logistical challenges. “We’re not just talking about overcoming distance,” he said. “We need to ensure that astronauts can survive in deep space for months, even years, at a time, with all the technological and health risks that come with it.”

RELATED: Justin Darnall wants to get humans back to the moon — and beyond

While the technology required to land humans on Mars would push forward technologies on Earth, such as improved solar-energy storage and water-conservation techniques, sending humans to Mars still presents extraordinary risks.

“Radiation is a huge problem,” Denn said. “Without Earth’s protective magnetic field, astronauts on Mars would be exposed to dangerous levels of cosmic radiation. We need to develop effective shielding solutions before we can send people there safely.”

Mars is also notorious for its extreme weather conditions: global dust storms, subzero temperatures, unpredictable terrain. Establishing a colony would require creating self-sustaining habitats with reliable food, water and energy sources.

“Even if we get people there, they have to survive,” Denn said. “Humans living on Mars would need to grow their own food, set up reliable water sources and use solar energy because there’s no oil on Mars. We must create solutions for this before long-term habitation is possible.”

We’ve seen this concept in action with projects such as Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This habitat tests the equipment and techniques necessary to explore the Martian surface. The simulated isolation of its volunteer inhabitants also provides valuable insights into the medical and psychological effects of long-duration space travel.

Early experiments in self-sustaining habitats, such as the first Biosphere 2 mission in Oracle, Arizona, in the 1990s, revealed significant challenges. Issues such as dwindling food supplies, dangerously low oxygen levels requiring external supplementation and rising tensions among the crew — often attributed to “confined-environment psychology” — highlight the complexities of maintaining a closed ecosystem for extended missions.

RELATED VIDEO: Robotics Club tackles lunar-colony challenge

Another major hurdle is communication. With a delay of between seven and 24 minutes for messages to reach Earth, real-time conversations would be impossible.

“Information can only travel at (a maximum of) light speed, and Mars is 4 light-minutes away when it’s at its closest,” Denn said.

Beyond the technical difficulties, there’s another major obstacle: cost. The estimated cost of sending humans to Mars is at least $500 billion, with some experts predicting even higher figures.

Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been a vocal proponent of interplanetary travel and has set his sights on Mars. SpaceX’s Starship, currently in development, is designed to carry large payloads and crews to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

“Right now, everything that private companies like SpaceX are doing is built on over 60 years of NASA’s research,” Denn said. “But with the constant slashing of NASA’s budget, it’s hard to imagine us even reaching the moon in the next four years.”

With all these seemingly insurmountable hurdles, why bother?

“With its 24.6-hour day, presence of water ice and thin atmosphere, (Mars) offers a more Earthlike environment than Venus, Mercury or the moon, which is closer to us but lacks an atmosphere capable of sustaining life,” Denn said.

Mars could prove a key opportunity for humanity’s future. “Life on Earth is not guaranteed to continue,” Denn said. “We should become a multiplanet species.”