William Atkins
Thursday, 11 February 2010 01:08
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that walking on the planet Mars by the 2030s is a good possibility if NASA is given a "reasonable and sustained" budget—and if they use that money wisely.
According to the February 9, 2010
Houston Chronicle article “
NASA chief: Mars is our mission,” former astronaut and now NASA boss, Charles Bolden, said
“That is my personal vision…. I am confident that, when I say humans on Mars is a goal for the nation, not just NASA, I'm saying that because I believe the president will back me up.”Bolden made those comments during a
Houston Chronicle editorial board meeting on Tuesday, February 10, 2010, in Houston, Texas—the site of the NASA Johnson Space Center.
Bolden will express those sentiments while appearing before committees of the U.S. Congress on February 24-25, 2010, in order to lay out the basic foundation for human exploration over the next two to three decades.
According to the
Houston Chronicle newspaper, Bolden thinks that the United States can land U.S. astronauts on Mars and return them safely back to Earth sometime in the 2030s, possibly even by the early part of that decade.
All of this is predicated on the U.S. Congress and the White House—during the next two decades—providing NASA with a
“reasonable and sustained” budget.
It is also predicated on NASA using that money wisely.
Page two concludes with the basic idea as to how the United States will proceed with its exploration of space and its desire to land astronauts on Mars.
