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The first one that I'll describe is human exploration of Mars. This is obviously a very bold initiative, a very ambitious initiative, that would begin in the 1990s with the robotic exploration of the planet. That would include programs like Mars Observer, probably an additional Mars Observer, Mars Observer II; a Mars rover sample return, all these in preparation for understanding the surface, the geo-chemical composition of Mars, to prepare our landing site to give us enough information to know where to land, what would be the interesting places to land and what are the potential pitfalls with the various areas. 

Also in the 1990s we would have to put a very heavy focus on life sciences, because life sciences is one of the crucial areas that will either allow humans to go to Mars or which will prevent humans from going to Mars. And we have some very, very fundamental work that has to be done that really can't be started in full force until we get a space station up in orbit. So a very, very important part of this in the 1990s would be very intensive life sciences research.

The concept of this initiative is to spend the 1990s getting ready, building our technology, building our transportation, doing reconnaissance of Mars, and returning with samples from Mars, doing the life sciences research in preparation for the first human mission to Mars, which in this initiative we proposed a launch in roughly 2004, with the first human landing on Mars in 2005. 

We went to some trouble in developing the scenarios to come up with a way to make these trips, one-year round trips, which cuts down some of the life sciences problems and some of the technology problems, and we conceived of having a series of three of these missions which would lead up to a decision in about the year 2010 of how we should establish our outpost on Mars, not whether we should establish it, but how we should establish it. So we conceived of this initiative not as a one-shot trip to Mars but as the beginning of exploration of the planet leading to the eventual settlement of humans on Mars.

Now, the initiative is a very long-range initiative, and I should emphasize that the first human missions can't take place before about 2005, and even that is stretching it quite a bit, especially with the recent delay in the space station. The Mars trip slips almost a year for year with the slip of the space station because of the importance of life sciences.

Those first three missions wouldn't be complete until 2010, so it's not until 2010 or later that you can begin to start building your outpost on the surface. So this is an initiative that requires a very significant commitment; it's a very visionary initiative and it requires a commitment over decades, at least two or three decades of intense work to be able to accomplish this initiative.

I think I have described the robotic exploration aspect of it sufficiently.

The life science work is critical, not just to understand the physiological effects of long duration space flight, of weightlessness, but it's also critical to develop the medical techniques, just the basic emergency room that you need to be carrying with you in your spacecraft, and I think you can probably appreciate the problems that could be associated with having to do an appendectomy, for