Obama promises to send humans to Mars by 2030

(Baonghean.vn) - US President Barack Obama said on October 11 that he will support sending humans to Mars within 14 years from now.

Setting foot on Mars soon is still the desire of mankind. Photo: Reuters

President Obama also pledged to work with private companies to “build a new environment that can help astronauts sustain and endure a long-duration mission in space.”

“We have set a clear and important goal for the next phase of America’s space story: sending humans to Mars by 2030 and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition of staying there for an extended period of time,” Obama said in an article for CNN, which was posted on the news agency’s website.

Obama’s announcement comes ahead of a White House meeting scheduled to take place in Pittsburgh this week aimed at strengthening collaboration between scientists, students and others involved in further efforts to develop the space market.

While private companies are now ready to launch missions to the International Space Station, humans have yet to reach Mars, which is about 35 million miles (56 million kilometers) from Earth, according to NASA.

Just like Earth, Mars, also known as the “Red Planet,” has different seasons. And in 2012, NASA completed its mission to find conditions that could support microbial life, the US space agency said.

It would take about nine months to reach Mars, depending on the rocket's speed, some NASA experts say. A high-speed trip could still take as little as 130 days, NASA's website says.

It has been decades since the US successfully put astronauts on the Moon in 1969. However, efforts to fund space development programs have stalled in recent years, due to concerns about government spending and other US financial priorities.

Khang Duy

(According to Reuters)