"With recent news headlines proclaiming that dozens of people have been selected as finalists for a Martian astronaut corps, it might seem like a trip to this alien world might finally be close at hand."

"But let's have a little reality check. What are the chances that we really will see people on the Red Planet in the next couple of decades?"

"Most people just don't get how hard this would be, says Mary Lynne Dittmar, an aerospace consultant in Washington, D.C. 'The distances that are involved and the complexities that are involved in going and staying there are really enormous,' she says."