NASA celebrates 60th anniversary aims to send humans to Mars
New Delhi : As NASA celebrates its 60th anniversary on October 1, Charles Bolden, a vital person in the space agency mentions about the target to land humans on Mars by the mid-2030's.
Charles Bolden was an astronaut on four space shuttle missions from 1980 to 1994. He worked as a pilot for two missions while as commander for the other two. Then, he has served as NASA Administrator from 2009 to 2017
"For me, it's a tremendous birthday to be celebrating, sixty years," he tells CNBC's On The Money in a recent interview. "Six decades of NASA being the organization that serves the nation in four areas, human space flight, science, aeronautics and technology." He also told CNBC that the space agency appears "on target to do that."
But before starting the journey towards the Red planet, NASA scientists will schedule a return trip to the Moon. A number of space experts think a new lunar mission could prove instructive before making a journey to the red planet
Bolden explained that the Trump Administration and current NASA leadership has "taken on the challenge of trying to put humans back on the surface on the moon which I think is important. It's not essential to putting humans on Mars, but I think it would be a very big step as long as we do it in the right way."
That way, he added, the government can "capitalize on the development of the commercial space sector as well as our international partners to help us get humans back on the surface of the Moon, while NASA leads the way with our international partners and entrepreneurs in getting humans to Mars."