One can only imagine what Wernher von Braun would have said if had he known, back in the days of Apollo, that not only would we not have landed humans on Mars by the year 2014, but we would still be decades away from achieving that goal. Undoubtedly, his reaction would have included stunned disbelief. Frankly, we should also be in a state of disbelief. After all, von Braun has not been the only prominent person to advocate for sending humans to Mars since the dawn of the Space Age. Indeed, U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush each attempted to launch programs to land crews on Mars, and President Barack Obama has stated that Mars is the “ultimate” destination. Yet we seem no closer than when von Braun was advocating the humans-to-Mars goal so many decades ago.
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