The Race to the Red Planet has heated-up with the announcement by Lockheed Martin it plans to have a huge spacecraft called the "Mars Base Camp" orbit Mars by 2028. Earlier this month, Elon Musk's space transport company SpaceX said it plans to land an uncrewed version of its Dragon spacecraft called Red Dragon on Mars in 2018.

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The goal of SpaceX in its race to Mars will be to establish a human colony on the planet. The astronauts in this colony and their equipment will be ferried to Mars on SpaceX's "Mars Colonial Transporter." Up to six astronauts could make the first human landing on Mars by the 2030s or 2040s.

On the other hand, Lockheed Martin plans to let astronauts orbit Mars first aboard its Mars Base Camp spacecraft before landing them on the surface. The company's approach mirrors that of the Apollo moon landing program. Before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in July 1969, Apollo 8 first orbited the moon in December 1968.

For its part, Lockheed Martin is convinced its plan to orbit Mars first is a very sound approach to colonizing a planet that will take a spacecraft from Earth at least nine months to reach.

"We think that orbiting Mars is a necessary precursor to landing humans on the surface," said Tony Antonelli, Lockheed Martin's chief technologist for civil space exploration. "NASA has that in their plans, and we're coloring in the details."

Astronauts aboard Mars Base Camp might orbit Mars for up to 11 months but won't land on the planet immediately. Their first priorities will be to remotely explore the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, and pilot surface rovers and aerial drones specially designed to operate in Mars' unique atmosphere.

Landings on Mars will take place when modules arrive with the equipment to do so. The Mars Base Camp will fly the astronauts back to Earth.

Mars Base Camp will be assembled in orbit around the moon. In Lockheed Martin's concept, two Orion capsules will link-up with larger habitat and laboratory modules to complete the spacecraft.

TagsLockheed Martin, Mars Base Camp, Mars, NASA, SpaceX, Elon Musk