President Barack Obama has announced America's mission to Mars in an Op-Ed column and wishes to establish human settlements on the planet by 2030s.
Obama, in his column on CNN, wrote that the United States is tying up with private companies to transport humans to Mars and back by the 2030s, reports ABC News. He made it clear that the ultimate goal of the mission is to establish human settlements on the Red Planet.
The President said that getting to Mars will require continuous cooperation between private innovators and the government, but the US is well on its way. In the next two years, private companies will be able to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
Elaborating further, he wrote that the government is working with its commercial partners to build habitats on Mars that can sustain and transport astronauts during the long-duration missions in the space. He said that these missions will tell scientists how humans can live far from Earth, which is needed for the long journey to Mars.
Notably, the Op-Ed has come before his trip to Pittsburgh where he will be attending the Frontiers Conference on science and technology. As for his vision to build habitats, the White House has called attention to government contracts that have been given to six companies, claims The Guardian. According to the newspaper, one such habitat has already been developed and it is an inflatable room, which is attached to the ISS.
Meanwhile, NASA has said that there is nothing new in the claims of the President. Former space policy chief of George Washington University, John Logsdon said that it is merely a refocusing of the fact that he set these goals and NASA has been pursuing them. Another official Alan Ladwig said that he liked the intent of the President but it is a little late in the term to shine a light on the humans-to-Mars exploration".
It may be mentioned here that Obama first set the goal to send humans to Mars in 2010 but he was warned by many government accountability office reports regarding funding challenges.
