While it will probably take at least another 20 years before Zubrin -- or anyone else for that matter -- makes it to the Martian surface, NASA and other space agencies are already drawing up plans for a voyage that will present astronauts not only with physical but also psychological challenges never faced by humans before.

CNN: Mars on the brain? Red Planet pioneers to face cosmic mind trip

Ms Geoffroy does a better job with her voyage through history, though when she comes to the present she is less convincing.

ECONOMIST: Two nations with a common language