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Today, President Obama outlined his vision for NASA’s future, including a manned mission to Mars. Russia and Europe are also planning missions to the red planet, but experts don’t expect a new international space race. The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  President Obama this afternoon outlined his vision for America’s future in space.  He spoke at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Many at the U.S. space agency NASA and some Apollo astronauts have criticized President Obama for scaling back U.S. plans to send astronauts to the moon.  Today the President said he’s committed to human exploration beyond the moon.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  We’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history.  By the mid 2030′s I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth.  And a landing on Mars will following.  And I expect to be around to see it.

WERMAN:  It was almost 50 years ago that President Kennedy declared the U.S. would send astronauts to the moon in a space race with the Soviet Union.  Much has changed on earth since then.  As The World’s Alex Gallafent reports, few envision a new international space race to Mars.

ALEX GALLAFENT:  The United States isn’t the only country that wants to set foot on the red planet.

JOHN LOGSDON:  It is the clearly stated goal of the European human space flight program and the Russian human space flight program.

GALLAFENT: But don’t expect an astronaut on Mars any time soon, says John Logsdon.  He’s former Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.  Logsdon says any manned mission to Mars is a long way off.

LOGSDON: For Russia they’re talking about 2040.

GALLAFENT: It’s more or less the same for the Europeans.  For now both Russia and the Europeans are working on baby steps doing all the work that has to happen first, that includes planning unmanned missions to Mars, sending robotic landers to the surface and even sending humans back to the moon.  And Europe and Russia are already collaborating.  Bruno Gardini leads the exploration program at the European Space Agency.

BRUNO GARDINI:  The mission to Mars I think is a huge enterprise and we believe that it will require a cooperative effort.

GALLAFENT: One cooperative effort between the European Space Agency and Russia is the so-called Mars 500 program.  Next month a small crew of Europeans and Russians will be locked away in a mock space ship for 500 days to simulate a mission to Mars.  The goal is to understand that psychological toll such a trip will take on the astronauts.  A real Mars mission will cost many billions of dollars and Bruno Gardini says for that reason alone working together on a mission to Mars makes good sense.

GARDINI: Actually we would like to see that as a global undertaking.

GALLAFENT: So now that President Obama has recommitted the U.S. to going to Mars, will the U.S. team up with these other players?  Space analyst John Logsdon believes it will.

LOGSDON: It’s part of U.S. policy that missions of human exploration should be international in character.  The United States is most likely to start with it’s current partners in human space flight which are Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, the partners in the space station.

GALLAFENT: The international space station is behind schedule and over budget.  Still, Logsdon says the international partners have shown that they can work together on a complex project in space.  The big unknown in all of this is China.  China is working with other countries on some aspects of its space program.  An unmanned Chinese probe to Mars is scheduled to fly on a Russian rocket next year.  But with China’s manned program to the moon and who knows. potentially to Mars, things seem to be different.  Joan Johnson-Freese is a space and security specialist at the Naval War College.

JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE:   The Chinese at this point have a very laid out schedule program for human exploration and there is a certain amount of fear and caution about working with the United States or turning their exploration program into an international venture because then they do lose a certain measure of control.

GALLAFENT: Human exploration of space is ultimately governed by complex political relationships on Earth, not just between countries, but within them.  Experts says President Obama’s speech today was as much about addressing critics in Congress and NASA as it was about looking toward the heavens.  Whether the U.S. ventures to Mars alone, together, or at all, could depend on where domestic politics stand well after President Obama leaves office.  For The World, I’m Alex Gallafent.

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