The chief of NASA says we shouldn't be worrying about climate change because getting to Mars will protect the survival of humans in the future.
Charles Bolden, a NASA administrator, spoke in London last week at the Royal Aeronautical Society.
"Getting to Mars is important because it is the only planet in the solar system [other than Earth] that we believe might have born life in some form at some time,' Mr Bolden said in London. "It may be able to sustain life right now, and it definitely can sustain human life if we put humans there."
He stressed that for this to happen, NASA has to be devoted to getting astronauts to Mars. Any step away from that plan, Bolden warned could keep future generations of people from surviving.
"It's important to remember that Nasa sent humans to the moon by setting a goal that seemed beyond our reach,' Bolden reminds listeners in London. With Mars as our focus, we are steadily building the capability to enable human missions to the red planet. The challenge is huge. Mars is hard, just to put it bluntly. Mars is really, really, really hard."
Bolden also suggested in London that learning about Mars, which may have once been a livable place, can teach us about climate change, and, perhaps, could allude us to the future of our own planet.
NASA's Maven spaceship recently arrived on Mars, and is taking pictures of the planet for researchers to study on Earth and understand Mars better before we send a human.
Bolden is calling this the "Year of Earth" referencing numerous upcoming space missions NASA has planned.
