Obama Shines Light On Manned Mars Mission

On Tuesday, President Obama took to revive his six-year-old bid for the US to launch humans to Mars by the 2030s.

 

The president called attention to government contracts granted to six companies to develop prototypes for “habitats” that could support human life in deep space. This is very similar to an inflatable room already attached to the International Space Station. Private companies such as Boeing and SpaceX will taxi astronauts to the space station with NASA as a customer within two years, Obama said.

Obama wrote on CNN’s website that humans will learn from these missions how to survive far from Earth, something we’ll need for the long journey to Mars. The ultimate goal is for humans to eventually stay on the red planet “for an extended time.”

No big deal

According to independent space experts and NASA officials, there is little new in what’s coming out of the government on Mars. John Logsdon, a former George Washington University space policy chief, said there’s nothing big at all. It’s a refocusing of the fact that the president laid down these goals and NASA has been working at them.

Former top NASA official Alan Ladwig said that though the intent is admirable, it’s a little late in the term to refocus on the humans to Mars exploration.

Obama intended to talk about the project further on Thursday when he meets with academics, engineers and scientists at an innovation summit in Pittsburgh.

The initiative has hardly drawn attention since the president first set a goal in 2010 to send humans to Mars by the 2030’s. Several Government Accountability Office reports have warned or the difficulties in achieving that goal, particularly a lack of extensive US government funding.

Obama did not give any details on what a Mars mission would cost or how the US would pay for it. But he said years of education, testing and patience are necessary.

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