article_snippet: The next window is open from January 2016 to April 2016, and will see the launch of two more missions to the red planet.
article_snippet: For a future manned mission, they will need to launch out in one of the windows and return in one, which will take two years in total.
article_snippet: Just getting there will take up to nine months.
article_snippet: The astronauts will be there waiting for a year until The astronauts can come back - a total of around three years.
article_snippet: For their study, their chose a mission plan that was similar to the Apollo moon missions.
article_snippet: The astronauts would start in low Earth orbit, then go to Mars and land, then return from Martian orbit and land on Earth.