Obama: America Heading to Mars by 2030s

WASHINGTON, DC — The next president of the United States won't see humans on Mars. His or her successor probably won't, either. But the current president of the United States announced ambitious plans to send humans to explore the Red Planet by the 2030s — with the eventual goal of humans living there.

In a column at CNN.com this week, President Barack Obama wrote of his personal curiosity about the final frontier, the advancements that exploration could bring to science and technology on Earth and announced new partnerships to develop the tools for deep-space travel.

"When our Apollo astronauts looked back from space, they realized that while their mission was to explore the moon, they had 'in fact discovered the Earth,'" he writes. "If we make our leadership in space even stronger in this century than it was in the last, we won't just benefit from related advances in energy, medicine, agriculture and artificial intelligence, we'll benefit from a better understanding of our environment and ourselves."

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America's goal will be exploration of Mars by the 2030s, according to the president, with the ultimate goal of extended trips. The initial steps involve partnerships with private companies, including plans for private companies to send astronauts to the space station in the next two years. Currently, private rockets have been used to get cargo to the station, including a launch planned this weekend off the Virginia coast.

"The next step is to reach beyond the bounds of Earth's orbit," the president writes. "I'm excited to announce that we are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space. These missions will teach us how humans can live far from Earth — something we'll need for the long journey to Mars."

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Those commercial partners — including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Orbital ATK and more — recently celebrated a summer of testing the next generation of U.S. spacecrafts, with an unmanned test mission planned in 2018.

“Crew safety is the highest priority as NASA prepares to send astronauts into deep space and eventually Mars,” said Lockheed Martin’s Tony Antonelli in a statement last week. “A rigorous flight test program is critical to ensuring all systems are ready for the journey.”

Obama's comments come in advance of the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh later this week. The event is expected to include "the world’s leading innovators" to discuss a range of investments made in the public and private sector in artificial intelligence, medicine, clean energy and space exploration.

The president also guest edited the November issue of Wired Magazine, themed "Frontiers."

NASA Plots the Course to Mars

NASA has laid out the roadmap for the eventual exploration of Mars, including a timetable over the next two decades. The work is broken down into three benchmarks: Earth Reliant, the Proving Ground and Earth Independent.

In the short-term, Earth Reliant focuses on continued research at the International Space Station, particularly technology and communication advancements for space travel and continued studies on astronauts living and working in space for extended periods of time.

In late 2018, work begins in the Proving Ground stage, with the first in a series of missions near the moon. NASA notes on its website, "Astronauts on the space station are only hours away from Earth, but the proving ground is days away, a natural stepping stone to a Mars mission, which will be months away from home."

The mission will carry the new Orion spacecraft, initially unmanned, beyond the moon on a three-week mission. The second trip will be manned, sending astronauts father than they have ever been before. Eventually, a journey launches for a yearlong mission into space to test the readiness for Mars.

The final stage, Earth Independent, would send astronauts to a low-Mars orbit in the early 2030s. This phase would involve tests of entry and landing techniques to the surface before a return trip home. Rover and robotics missions are planned for the 2020s.

Much of the science presented in the movie "The Martian," a film about a NASA astronaut stranded on Mars, was developed using NASA studies about potential habitats, tools and contingencies for eventual exploration on the planet. We'll hope for less cinematic drama and more success on the actual missions.

As we wait for those historic trips, Obama has set the bar high on space ambitions.

"Someday, I hope to hoist my own grandchildren onto my shoulders. We'll still look to the stars in wonder, as humans have since the beginning of time," he writes. "But instead of eagerly awaiting the return of our intrepid explorers, we'll know that because of the choices we make now, they've gone to space not just to visit, but to stay — and in doing so, to make our lives better here on Earth."

Top photo: President Obama and his family tour the Kennedy Space Center in 2011. NASA/Bill Ingalls