A human-operated spaceship reaches the moon in 3 days. The moon is about 386,400 km from Earth. Mars, our closest planetary neighbor, is, at its closest, about 140 times farther away from us than the moon if Mars stays in place. Assuming a very simple model of the solar system, about how long would it take that same spaceship to reach Mars? (1 point)
about 1 year
about 2.5 years
about 7.5 years
about 22.5 years
If the moon is 386,400 km away and it takes 3 days to reach it, then the spaceship travels at a speed of approximately 386,400 km / 3 days = 128,800 km/day.
If Mars is about 140 times farther away from us than the moon, then the distance to Mars is 140 * 386,400 km = 54,096,000 km.
Using the same speed of 128,800 km/day, it would take the spaceship approximately 54,096,000 km / 128,800 km/day = 420.38 days to reach Mars.
Rounded to the nearest whole number, it would take about 420 days to reach Mars.
Therefore, the spaceship would take about 1 year to reach Mars.