The colonisation of Mars has long been a dream, and Nasa has openly spoken of its desire to send humans to the red planet by the 2030s.
However, these celestial plans have had a very earthly spanner thrown in its works — money.
The chief of Nasa’s programme on human exploration of space, William Gerstenmaier, was quoted by Newsweek as saying that with its current budget, the agency cannot afford the cost of propelling a manned spacecraft to Mars.
“Through this horizon, through the 2030s, I can’t put a date on humans on Mars,” Gerstenmaier said on Wednesday.
Nasa has made the project a “high priority” of its exploration programme and is already studying potential exploration zones which would provide resources that potential inhabitants could use.
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