WASHINGTON, September 7. /TASS/. Getting humans to Mars could happen if there is a collaboration of nations, scientists, and the private sector, United States Marine Corps Major General Charles Bolden, the head of NASA in the Obama administration (2009-2017), said in an interview with TASS.
"I am a person who happens to believe it's going to take international collaboration to get to places where I want us to go, like Mars," Bolden said. "It's very difficult to go to space, period, really difficult to go somewhere like the Moon, and really, really, really difficult to talk about getting humans to Mars. While there are a lot of individuals and a lot of single countries that have ambitions to be the first to get there, I think it's going to be a collaboration of nations, academia, and the private sector that are going to enable us to get there," he said.
According to Bolden, he still expects that his goal of having humans on Mars is the 2030s although "that's getting harder and harder." "And I have heard my friend, the [current] NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, say early 2040s. But I'm still holding out hope," he said.
However, the former chief of the US space agency was skeptical about the prospect of a private company’s capability of sending humans to Mars alone.
"And I'll go back to what I talked about before, about the critical importance of collaboration among countries, academic institutions, and industry. That's what it's going to take to get humans to Mars," Bolden emphasized.
Artemis Moon Program
Bolden opined that the United States had made progress regarding the Artemis Moon Program, but added that multiple delays in the implementation of its stages were inevitable. To date, the mission’s first stage has been implemented, which was an unmanned flight of a Space Launch System super heavy-lift rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft around the Moon and its return to Earth. The flight had been initially scheduled for 2019, but did not take place until November 16 through December 11, 2022. A similar but manned flight, initially scheduled for 2022, is not expected until September 2025. NASA expected to land astronauts on the moon in 2024 in the third stage of its mission.
"Something that's characteristic of at least our space program, and I think every country's space programs, is we set these goals that we want to reach, and something comes up," he said. "Either funding falls short, or supply chain drops, or something else."
In general, Bolden added, he would say the lunar program had been highly successful to date.
"If you're counting success as to meeting your milestones, no, we've not done that, because we're years behind where we hoped we would be. And we've got to improve on that," the former NASA chief said.