According to NASA they hope to have the first manned flight to Mars in 2030. Will it happen?

Sure, we got to the moon on schedule I don't see why we won't make it to Mars in the same timely fashion.

Probably very likely. By 2030 I wouldnt be suprised if Private space travel made it on mars by then. Its extremely important that we get the journey to Mars as short as possible, possibly 1 - 2 months at most, which I think we will be able to manage in the next 25 years.

Now we have private space travel kicking off in 17 months, things should get really busy over the next 5 - 10 years in the space industry !

I'll say no.

For two reasons:

1 - I'm one of those that believes that we're still to tread foot on the moon, getting to Mars is obviously much harder, so I'll leave it to the professionals: the Europeans

2 - See 1. I believe the Euros will get there first.

We could have been there already if we'd had the will and the vision to do it.

Oh yes the professional europeans who`s recent attempt at sending a rover to mars failed miserably, whild NASA`s two rovers have been a unbelievably amazing success and are still going and will do so for another 18 months.
The european spave agency struggles to get anywhere near enough funding and wont be able to afford or undertake such a large and costly mission. If anyone is to beat the amercians to mars it will be the chinese, they are the next space power!

Let's not forget the Nasa's Mars Observer who somehow just lost contact, the Climate Orbiter who had the metric to imperial conversion problems, the Polar Lander with a faulty no-fail-safe sensor, and the Deep Space 2 probes that never worked. NASA has been having many problems and not just the Mars ones that I just mentioned. Yes, the rovers were successful but after how many other failures? I have more trust in some other agency of sending a man to Mars than NASA.

um, sorry to say.... but the Euro's are still battling on who makes a better noodle. If anything, I think China will step up to save face in their new and upcoming super power status.
U.S. over here cant do it just becuase the dems and the reps cant unite on anything worth while.

i hate americans who talk bad about america

of coarse nasa will be the first, stop undersestimated our technological advances, out of all the nasa attempts that have failed, some have still succeeded, i dont think any other nation out there can say that any of thier attempts have a rate of success like the US's

I think we can do it by 2030, but I also am a believer in joint missions. I think it would be unwise to do it all on our own this time, like with the moon landings.

I would like to see the ESA and Japan in on this. Part of the problem we have is cost and funding. Well, if we spread out the cost and funding to some other agencies, and we work together to achieve this one goal, then we get it done.

Neal Armstrong said, "We come in peace for all mankind." No we didn't. He was there as a direct message to the then Soviet Union. It was the greatest achievment of all time, but we weren't there in peace. We were there to stick it to the Russians.

And I have no problem with that whatsoever.

But now, things have changed. The world has changed. What better way to unite people globally than by actually achieving the greatest feat in the history of the human race TOGETHER?

i like the idea of the togetherness project, but im assuming that there is a lot of money to be gained after the succesful mission, and if america does it alone then america will also gain on its own, i love america, but we are a greedy nation and i can admit that

An International, cooperatvie mission would have the best chance at success but I doubt that will happen for quite a long tiem anyway and in they mean time I just dont see anyone beating America to Mars, when it coem to competition of any sort they do their best time after time!
When it comes to space Nasa, have achieved the most, they have had failures too but that happens to everyone and their success outweight their failures by a large margin!

most definetly, im not certain but i think hubble is the ONLY telescope in space....and i mean it would make sense to have a telescope allready in space if you want to see space

ya im pretty sure people will be walking on mars even before 2030 probabaly

No where did I talk bad about America. I was talking bad about NASA, not America. I also wasn't saying another country's space program is going to get people there first either. I really want to see the commercial sector take over. Competition breeds ingenuity.

I agree, we need the commercial/private sector to get involved in space explorationaand travel for us to really get up there. They have just so much more resources, money and facilities compare with government agencies. The potential for success is unbelievable!

I think it will happen.

I wonder what the cost will be to make it there and back.

Nasa estimated it at around 100 billion last year, but I believe it will be far greater than that. If its a international effort the cost will be greater but there will be many nations to share the bill, making it far easier to achieve!

I would Vote "Maybe" if it was there.

I mean, sure we have had a boom in Tech and Science in just the last Decade alone! However, saying we will get to Mars and back in 25 years well.. I would want us to, yes. However, actually seeing this happen.. I mean it just seems far too risky, there are the biological and physical effects of being in Zero Gravity for a long period of time. What type of fule would be used? For that matter, what would we really accomplish but the knowledge that we could possibaly begin destroying yet another planet? I doubt this will bring any "World Peace," either.

As much as the ideas of Space Exploration intrest me and I really, really, really do support it, I just have my doubts.

Well JFK said that America had a goal to reach the moon by the end of this (1960-1969) decade, and they did it. So i see no reason that America couldn't get to the mars in 25 years.

And 100billion seems to be alot, but America's military budget for each year is nearly 400 billion.

i don't care about mars. yes i find it interesting from time to time to read about what scientists think exists there, but other than that, mars is just a big red planet. i don't want our government to force us all to pay for some trip to mars. there is nothing to come of it. innovation is found in the private sector, innovation is thwarted with government involvement. is there really any need to travel to mars other than to say it happened? we went to the moon several times, no big deal. we never went back because there was nothing there. same with mars. i hope NASA gets canned.

The only reason why I want NASA to go to Mars, is to explore the Cydonia region. (where the face and the "pyramids" are)

I know they are probably just natural formations, but I would still like to find out.

Not if the Yanks hire the same film crew they used to fake the moon landing... LOL

there is no way we'll get there in the next 50 years unless we find a way to go faster and store fuel for a 100 million mile flight. unless we find a wormhole.

^Actually we hav the technology to build a craft that could get there in 6-9 months and then travl eback. We are quite capable. The only thing stopping us is the cost and what the long term health effects might be to the human occupants of such a craft.

Agreed.

There is a book by Robert Zubrin called "The Case for Mars."

In his book he shows every little detail in getting to Mars and back, and it seems we are quite capable of acheiving this task.