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A Brazilian researcher just found a 153-day route to Mars inside a file that asteroid trackers had already discarded as too rough to use, and it raises a reasonable question about what else is in the
Space Daily • • science
Key Points:
- A 2026 study by Marcelo de Oliveira Souza identifies Earth-to-Mars trajectories potentially reducing round-trip mission time to as little as 153 days, compared to the current two to three years typical for Mars missions.
- Souza discovered these trajectories using early, preliminary orbital data of near-Earth asteroid 2001 CA21, repurposing discarded asteroid orbit estimates as geometric reference planes for efficient transfer routes.
- The fastest proposed mission would require an unprecedented departure speed of around 27 km/s, far exceeding current human-rated propulsion capabilities, making the findings a theoretical possibility rather than an immediate mission plan.
- The study highlights a novel methodological approach of using preliminary asteroid orbit data to identify efficient interplanetary trajectories, though its broader applicability across asteroid catalogs remains untested.
- The next practical opportunity to test these trajectories is the 2031 Mars opposition, contingent on advances in propulsion technology and further research applying Souza’s method systematically.
