NASA recently announced, after 30 years of looking, that it had found evidence of flowing water on Mars. This was an amazing discovery and a game-changer in the way we look at Mars as a future home.

It’s hard to imagine that at one time in the distant past Mars had more water on its surface for its size than we have here on Earth. Unfortunately, Mars suffered an impact so great it lost its magnetic field, the atmosphere drifted away and the water disappeared.

This new discovery will almost certainly kickstart a new drive by governments and private consortia to go there, eventually establishing a base where humans will live and work for extended periods of time.

Just how close to reality is a manned mission to Mars? We’re actually far better prepared for Mars now than NASA was in 1961 as it looked to getting a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth again. If we put our mind to it we could be on Mars in 10 years.

NASA’s timeframe is a little longer. The first step is to land a crew on an asteroid around 2024, maybe establish the first Moon base, then attempt the bold plan to land astronauts on the Red Planet in the 2030s. Science fiction maybe, but what wasn’t once?

Any human journey to Mars would involve a round trip of at least three years, six months to fly there, six months to come home again, and two years on the Martian surface while Mars and Earth move back into the right orbital positions for the return flight.

Assuming you did actually manage to land safely, the next challenge is to explore your new world. With only one third of the gravity of Earth, and an atmosphere made mainly of carbon dioxide, Mars presents challenges to human beings. Without a protective atmosphere like Earth, astronauts on Mars will be exposed to cosmic radiation. We would also have to contend with winter temperatures of minus 60C and the best on offer in the middle of summer, in a Martian heatwave, would be 20 above.

Oh, and by the way, if you think a trip to Mars is all “pie in the sky” consider this – the first person to set foot on Mars has already been born. The first people to colonise the planet are being born now.