Within our lifetimes, rover tracks on the surface of Mars may one day be joined by human footprints.
A number of major players are currently engaged in developing the technologies and means necessary to begin the human colonization of the red planet. While the timelines presented by each for bringing this ambitious new chapter in human exploration to fruition differ, many believe the world envisioned by Matt Damon's "The Martian" could be two to four decades away.
"It is in our DNA, our makeup as human beings, to have a curiosity to expand our knowledge and to explore beyond the present limits," former astronaut Buzz Aldrin told From The Grapevine. "It is an inevitable mark of progress."
Click through the following slides to learn more about the technologies currently in development that will one day take us to Mars and beyond.