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The purpose of going to Mars is for humans to first begin to occupy, permanently, another planet in the solar system. The astronauts or pilgrims, whatever you might call them, are going to be very historically unique human beings.

We like to talk about pioneering Mars rather than just exploring Mars, because once we get to Mars, we will set up some sort of permanent presence.

People will visit Mars, they will settle mars, and we should because it's cool.

As we visit Mars multiple times, we will build up infrastructure on the surface to expand the capabilities and reach of humans on Mars.

It's great that people are interested in Mars.

The space program needs a goal, and the goal should be humans to Mars.

If humanity doesn't land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed.

By refocusing our space program on Mars for America's future, we can restore the sense of wonder and adventure in space exploration that we knew in the summer of 1969. We won the moon race; now it's time for us to live and work on Mars, first on its moons and then on its surface.

We constantly learn new lessons up here. The experiences we gather will enable us to establish a long-term station on the moon and to go on to Mars.

Mars has a bit of air pressure; maybe we can build up that atmosphere to be a bit more accommodating to humans.