Researchers from Imperial College London have plans for a three-person crew mission to Mars in a small craft, according to multiple reports.

The "concept" passengers would be sent out to Mars in a craft, which would "rotate to generate artificial gravity and use a heat shield to protect itself against solar flares," BBC News reports.  The crew would return using a "pre-sent craft fuelled using ice from beneath the planet's surface."

The goal of the concept mission is to see what technical obstacles and risks humans would have to overcome in order to sustain life on Mars.

"Every part of this mission scenario has been demonstrated one way or the other, including the in situ propellant production on the surface of Mars," Professor Tom Pike, who led the Imperial design team, told BBC News.  "There are big, big jumps between a demonstration at one level and putting together the engineering systems for a mission, but they are engineering challenges. They are not fundamentally about making new discoveries."

Scientist were able to design a two-part craft; part one is a Martian lander with a heat shield, which the passengers will need to use to get back into Earth's orbit.

The second part of the crafter is directly underneath, called the "cruise habitat vehicle", "a cylindrical craft split into three floors and measuring some 10m (30ft) in height and 4m in diameter," according to BBC News.

"Once in Earth orbit, the astronauts would move from the lander into the larger habitat vehicle before a rocket burst would propel the conjoined craft on a trajectory to Mars," BBC News reports.  "The quickest journey time would be nine months when Earth and Mars are in optimum alignment."

At the moment, the Imperial team is biggest concern is to how the trip will affect the three-person crew.  The passenger's health will be closely monitored abroad the craft, and there will be medication on board should someone become ill.

"We've obviously got some real issues with a long-term mission in terms of the de-conditioning which goes on in the space environment," Ryan Robinson, the Imperial team's physiologist, told BBC News.  "Bones loss [in a weightless environment] is about 1-2% a month and if they're landing they'll be susceptible to fractures if they've got to be exerting themselves."

To read the full BBC story, click here.