WeatherTalk: There is a new space race to Mars and beyond – The Dickinson Press

"That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind," said Neil Armstrong on this date in 1969 in the gender biased language of the era. There is a new space race today. A Chinese rocket has landed on Mars and deposited a rover vehicle capable of doing all sorts of exciting science. This means that the Americans are no longer the only nation to have sent a vehicle to another planet. More significantly, the Chinese have announced their plan to send people to the Martian surface in the year 2033 and to eventually build a base there.

Meanwhile, NASA, in conjunction with Elon Musk and other contemporary space cowboys, have plans to build an inhabited base on the Moon and, eventually, on Mars. At stake in this new space race: space mining rights, being the first to discover new science, and just being first; one thing that has not changed since the 60s.

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WeatherTalk: There is a new space race to Mars and beyond - The Dickinson Press