The next 30 minutes of questioning was unpleasant for the NASA director. The press wanted all the details for this so-called one-year Mars mission. Chris pointed to the journalist from the New York Post who asked the final question. “How much planning have you had for this mission so far?” Chris looked downward to carefully arrange his words. “Let me answer that and a lot more. Um, ever since the Moon Program, we’ve had a small team of engineers going through scenarios with regard to a Mars mission. That team size has fluctuated over the years, but it’s always been there. They’ve even had test settlements in the Southwest to study the basic ins and outs of living in such a remote location. So we’ve done a lot of planning already. The only catch is the travel.” He continued, “Our existing rockets have very limited fuel. This means that it takes a long time to get there. That is our greatest challenge. As far as personnel go, we have a great group of veteran astronauts from the shuttle program who would be very qualified for this mission.
