The idea of sending man to Mars has captivated human minds since the early 1950s. A plan for NASA to conduct a Mars program was rejected in the late 1960s in favor of building the space shuttle. The Mars exploration idea was revived as part of President George H. W. Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative in 1989 but died soon after at the hands of Congress and President Bill Clinton. When President Barack Obama cancelled President W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration program, the “humans to Mars” initiative was all that survived. According to current time lines, NASA envisions astronauts setting foot on the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s.
But with the impending release of Ridley Scott’s film version of the bestseller book “The Martian,” starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, a group is calling on space advocates to capitalize on the widely anticipated movie to call for political action to support NASA’s humans to Mars program.
The movement is being spearheaded by an organization called Explore Mars. “If space advocates are successful in harnessing the excitement surrounding The Martian-showing that this type of mission is an achievable goal in the next two decades-it can have a real impact on advancing this goal,” Rick Zucker, Director of Political Outreach and Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, said in a statement, according to the Examiner.