Mars has been the subject of exploration proposals for decades. Early plans focused on landing astronauts on Mars and eventually settling the planet. While these missions were often planned for 10-30 years in the future, preliminary work was already underway in the 1950s. The interior of Mars is differentiated with a dense metallic core surrounded by a silicate mantle. The core is estimated to be about 1,794 km in radius and richer in lighter elements than Earth's. The crust averages 50 km thick, up to 125 km, making it over one third thicker than Earth's crust relative to the sizes of the planets.