President Barack Obama announced Tuesday he wants a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s.
Obama expanded upon his vision for deep space travel in an op-ed piece.
The president said the ultimate goal is to make it possible to one day remain on Mars for an extended period of time.
"Getting to Mars will require continued cooperation between government and private innovators, and we're already well on our way. Within the next two years, private companies will for the first time send astronauts to the International Space Station," Obama wrote.
He continued, "The next step is to reach beyond the bounds of Earth's orbit. I'm excited to announce that we are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space. These missions will teach us how humans can live far from Earth -- something we'll need for the long journey to Mars."
The president's Op-Ed comes ahead of a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday, where he will attend the Frontiers Conference on science and technology. Obama noted that more than 1,000 companies are already working on private space initiatives.
A Senate committee voted last month to authorize funds for a mission to Mars, regardless of who replaces Obama in the White House.
“We are going to Mars. We’re going to Mars in the decade of the 2030's with humans,” Sen. Bill Nelson, (D), Fla., said.
Obama is pushing for a public and private partnership.
Six companies are currently designing prototypes for where humans would live and work on a Mars mission.
Obama announced that NASA will begin working with private companies to install their own corporate modules on the International Space Station.
Skeptics say the president's timetable for a Martian mission is optimistic.
“I think the technical difficulties and budgetary difficulties of getting humans to the Martian surface and back are pretty daunting,” Scott Pace, from George Washington University, said.
Pace , was a top NASA official in the Bush administration, and says there is little incentive for private businesses or other countries to pitch in resources for Mars.
“While Mars is a great visionary goal and we should be thinking about how to do that, I think we all should be thinking about what do we do next after the space station,” he said.
The International Space Station is scheduled to be out of service in 2024, several years before any potential Mars mission.
