Odds are, you’re not going to walk on Mars. That’s not meant to be a deliberately cruel statement, but rather a reflection of the realities of space exploration. Barring a dramatic acceleration and change in focus of NASA’s exploration programs—which may only be possible if Robert Zubrin was somehow elected president—the first human expedition to Mars is unlikely to occur before 2030. (NASA officials and others are fond of saying that the first people to walk on Mars are in grade school today—a sobering thought for those of us who long since left college.) Even if you’re still alive in 2030 or so, the people on those first expeditions are going to be from a small handpicked group of the country’s, if not the world’s, elite scientists and engineers. You have a much better chance of being a successful athlete in professional baseball and football than you have of traveling to Mars, at least through the next several decades.

trying to go see this one

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