A good long time I would think. I don’t believe humans currently have a space craft that could sustain a manned or womanned or co-ed mission to Mars or the means to sustain an outpost once we got there.

Do you mean get to Mars to compete with those aliens for territorial rights? Assuming funding is not a problem, whether the US by itself or with the help of other countries like Russia, China and Japan, I’m guessing 15 to 20 years? ( if they really go in superfast mode ) I’m certain human testing for such a long distance travel has not been thoroughly researched yet but the transport technology is pretty much set since man-made robot explorers have successfully landed and sent data back already.

Less than one year of prep time, then the eight month journey.

@mazingerz88 Paying a visit just seems like the sort of thing that most people would want to do. We can’t pass a traffic accident without rubbernecking, let alone one of the biggest findings since electricity.

I think it would make for a good movie. Sorta like Contact, minus the religious strawmen and the annoying ending, plus something like the ending from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. You could spend most of the movie on the politics, the preparations, and probably something resembling a biopic, and then kinda be vague.

@Nullo Now that you mentioned those movies, can’t help thinking of a scenario where we would have established communications with them through our probes and if this alien race are friendly enough, they might use their technology to pick us up to give us a tour of Mars themselves. Either way, we would have contact first and that will most likely dictate the nature of our manned mission to Mars.

I don’t think any country in the world has the financial resources to do that at all now.

If they really are neighbourly they should visit us. They have a car.