Trump Gives NASA a Deadline in Its Mission to Send Humans to Mars

The leader of the most powerful country in the world wanted to speed up NASA's attempt to send humans to Mars. President Donald Trump casually gave the premiere space agency a deadline in sending humans to the red planet.

NASA's Journey to Mars is slated to occur in 2030. In preparation for that, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are experimenting on science that can help the mission succeed. Astronaut Peggy Whitson, who recently broke the record for the longest accumulated hours spent in space, spoke to President Trump about it.

President Trump called the ISS to congratulate Whitson on her achievement. During the course of the conversation, Trump expressed his interest in the manned mission to Mars in 2030.

"Well, we want to try and do it during my first term or, at worst, during my second term," Trump said. "Se we'll have to speed that up a little bit, okay?"

Some may think that Trump could have been joking with his deadline at that time. But no one can tell for sure. One thing is clear though, despite President Trump's passive actions on climate change issues, he has expressed his support for multi-planetary travel and deep space explorations. An obviously esteemed astronaut, Trump even asked Whitson if she's interested in flying further than the ISS.

"Who's ready to go to Mars up there?'' Trump asked Whitson during the call.

In order to make the mission to send humans to Mars a possibility, NASA is working with commercial space flight companies. Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to build transporters that have the capability to transport humans to deeper space locations. As of this moment, it is not clear whether or not the president's deadline could really speed up the preparations for the mission.

Aside from that, Elon Musk's SpaceX is also geared towards a manned mission to the red planet. At some point, it has become a race to Mars for many agencies, private space flight companies and even among nations themselves. But only time and successful technologies will decide whether or not NASA is ready to send humans to Mars in 2030 or earlier.