There will be many steps on the pathway to Mars. It's a vastly more complicated effort than just putting astronauts on top of a big rocket. An intimidating list of new technologies will have to be developed to get humans to the red planet - and to allow them to survive once they get there. But the biggest challenge might be paying for the trip. This will be the most ambitious and expensive journey of exploration ever, and we have to figure out how to accumulate the political and financial capital we'll need to pay for such a huge endeavour. This story is Part 1 of Quirks & Quarks' Pathway to Mars series. Each instalment looks at one part of the huge challenges inherent in the most ambitious journey of exploration we've ever attempted - a human mission to Mars.

From the Curio.ca streaming audio-visual collection.