Travel to Mars: Getting There and Back

• How far away is Mars?
  
  
• How does the Martian orbit around the Sun compare to Earth's?
  
  
• How would a trip to Mars proceed?
  
  
• How long would it take to reach Mars?
  
  
• After getting to Mars, how long would our astronauts actually stay?
  
  
• What would our astronauts do once they reached Mars?
  
  
• Where else could our astronauts go on a space trip...?
  
  
• How many astronauts would be sent in each spacecraft?
  
  
• What about simulating this sort of trip; have we already done this?