We speak with John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, the Executive Director of the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, about the main reasons for wanting to go to Mars and how much demand there is to go to Mars and for what purpose. NASA has recently invited the private sector to submit proposals on commercial missions to the red planet.
Professor Tingay said – “For decades, NASA and other space agencies have spent large sums on in-house planning, development and production for space missions. In the 2020s, the technologies for space exploration are increasingly being developed in the commercial world. However, it is early days and the commercial approach has to prove itself. Should humans go to Mars? If the history of human exploration is anything to go by, you only need a tiny fraction of the population to be motivated enough to do it. If they also have the capital, it will happen.”
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