On Friday, China announced that it plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020. The Russian Federal Space Agency is working with the European Space Agency. Every major power in the world has some form of interest in Mars. Like 1961, when Russia first rocketed Yuri Gagarin into orbit and the U.S. was afraid that Russians would beat us with the first actual man on the Moon, the race is on.
The U.S. should again set its priorities to be able to claim that it first stepped foot on the Red Planet. Unfortunately, we are not.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, Americans dreamed of the possibilities in spaceflight. We were certain that in the not-too-distant future, an astronaut would land on Mars. However, 47 years after the moon landing, the U.S. is no closer to that goal.
The U.S. still has its eyes on Mars — at least that's what the government leads us to believe. Astronaut Scott Kelly was back on Earth after spending 340 days in space on March 2. His year in space was part of a NASA study involving both him and his twin brother, Mark, a former astronaut, on space travel and the human body in space versus on Earth. This was in preparation for a theoretical Mars mission.
The problem is, there has been no mission to Mars. For nearly 50 years and counting since we landed on the moon, there has been a manned mission-to-orbit circling 200 to 300 miles above us, and an unmanned mission to other planets.
And the blame for that lies squarely with the current feckless administration. We need someone in there who can re-ignite the spirit of innovation and achievement that JFK ignited in the 1960s. To read more, click here.