Americans Anticipate Manned Mission to Mars Within 20 Years

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According to a poll dubbed Mars Generation, Approximately 71% of Americans are excited for and anticipate a manned mission to Mars in the next 20 years, with more than half of American's feeling NASA should "play a strong role" in assisting a commercial company, or head up a mission themselves.

In the same poll, conducted by Phillips & Company and sponsored by The Boeing Corporation and Explore Mars, a majority of respondents incorrectly answered that they felt NASA's budget represented 2.5% of the federal budget (~$88.5 Billion). When presented with the reality that NASA's Fiscal Year 2013 budget sits at about .5% ($17.7 Billion) of the federal budget, 75% of those polled felt the Agency's funding should be doubled to 1% ($35.4 Billion) of the federal budget, with the express purpose of funding a manned mission to Mars.

Chris Carberry, Executive Director of Explore Mars, the non-profit that sponsored the Mars Generation poll proclaimed, “Despite difficult economic times, the American people are still inspired by space exploration and are committed to human exploration of Mars. This is a wake up call to our leaders that Americans are still explorers.” The poll showed this adventurous spirit is exemplified in the top three reasons Americans support a manned mission to Mars: to support a greater understanding of the planet, to search for signs of life on Mars, and to maintain American leadership in space. 73% feel a major hurdle to a manned mission to mars is affordability and 67% feel politics will be a large impediment to success.

An executive committee member of The Mars Initiative, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization unaffiliated with this study,  interpreted these results as a sign of the American people's continued fascination with space: "Americans want space exploration to be more of a national priority. This poll should serve as a message for America's leaders that their citizens want to see more of a commitment to the space industry, not less." A full report on the poll's findings will be released on 4 March 2013.

Let's hope America's leaders take note of this poll, but in the meantime, I encourage you to keep following news about Mars and sharing it with people you know. The more people we have that support missions to Mars, the more likely it will become a national, or even global priority.

One easy way you are guaranteed to support the first manned mission to Mars is by joining The Mars Initiative, so I encourage you to take a look!

The Mars Initiative

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The world is full of people that want to see humans on Mars. Until now the average person had no means to support such a difficult and expensive mission. The Mars Initiative has changed that!

The Mars Initiative is a non-profit organization that seeks to gain the support of one million people for a human mission to Mars. If a million (or more) people were donating just one dollar every month, The Mars Initiative would raise, at a minimum, $12 million dollars a year. All of this money would go to the agency or corporation that launches the first manned mission to Mars. The concept is very similar to the Google Lunar X Prize, except the amount is not a fixed, rather it depends on the amount of donations received from the public. The fund will continue growing until such time as the first manned Mars mission leaves Earth's surface.

The Mars Initiative is entirely transparent. All donations go to a bank account that will remain untouched until the first manned mission to Mars lifts off. Every bank statement is uploaded monthly to The Mars Initiative's website, allowing the public to keep track of all donations.

One of the greatest aspects of The Mars Initiative is that it is entirely volunteer-based. Whether it be website development, public relations, or even legal, everything is done on a volunteer basis. What's more, any person is welcome to volunteer and grow The Mars Initiative. In the future there will be a list of tasks that the organization needs to accomplish and people will be able to check out that task. This novel method will let people choose the tasks they are best suited to complete, ensuring that people of any background can  contribute to The Mars Initiative and give everyone a chance to be a part of history.

Follow @MarsInitiative

The Mars Initiative's transparent fundraising and entirely volunteer-based approach will produce a large number of supporters throughout the world and guarantee that it accomplishes its goal of securing at least one million people for a human mission to Mars.

The Mars Initiative's founder and President is Mina Mukhar, a distinguished financial advisor with an MBA and Masters of Science in Accounting and Information Systems from University of Texas - Dallas. [See The Mars Initiative's entire leadership team]

I'll be posting regular updates about The Mars Initiative here, so keep checking back in!

Join The Mars Initiative Now!