Obama set a "clear goal" to send humans to Mars by the 2030s and to have them return to Earth safely"

President Barack Obama has his eyes on the stars -- or more accurately -- a planet. In an op-ed published Tuesday on CNN, Obama set a "clear goal" to send humans to Mars by the 2030s and to have them return to Earth

Tom Kludt CNN 10-11-16

safely, "with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time."

"Someday, I hope to hoist my own grandchildren onto my shoulders. We'll still look to the stars in wonder, as humans have since the beginning of time," Obama wrote. "But instead of eagerly awaiting the return of our intrepid explorers, we'll know that because of the choices we make now, they've gone to space not just to visit, but to stay -- and in doing so, to make our lives better here on Earth."

Achieving the goal, Obama added, will "require continued cooperation between government and private innovators" -- a collaboration that will begin in the coming years when companies send astronauts to the International Space Station. ...
Read more »

Long-term human colonization of Mars is feasible, as long as Red Planet pioneers "live off the land," a recent NASA report concludes. "There are massive resources on Mars obtainable from the

Leonard David Space.com 7-27-16

atmosphere and extracted from the regolith which are capable of supporting human colonization," write the authors of the report, which is called "Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars."

Using Martian resources, existing technologies could supply water, oxygen, fuel and building materials, the report adds, "to relax the dependence on Earth during the buildup of a colony on Mars."
Read more »