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Wanted: a middle-aged married couple for a 501-day round voyage to Mars. Candidates must demonstrate both physical resilience and exceptional psychological fortitude.
This is the profile sought for the very first Martian crew, should the plans of entrepreneur Vincent Hale to dispatch a capsule on 8 March 2026 actually come (9) .......... fruition. The vessel will carry its occupants to within approximately 160 kilometres of the Martian surface. Ingeniously, the spacecraft will harness the gravitational pull of Mars to redirect itself toward Earth without consuming additional propellant, (10) .......... fuel conservation is of paramount importance — the 2026 departure window has been selected (11) .......... the subsequent alignment of Mars and Earth will not recur (12) .......... 2033. It is a (13) .......... order, yet the drive to engineer systems drawing on entirely novel technologies is already well underway. (14) .......... that the requisite breakthroughs can be achieved in time, the mission might just (15) .......... it. Even if the spacecraft (16) .......... leaves the launchpad, however, the endeavour will not have been in vain, as the accumulated knowledge will lay indispensable groundwork for the missions that follow.