Funny how every 10 years the date for manned Mars missions slips out by 15-20 years...

I've said before that I think the soonest realistic date is the mid 2030s. The cyclic concept looks like lots of infrastructure R&D. I think that the 1st trip will be more brute force with less moon bases, orbiting space stations and recycling spaceships developed. The 1st trip will be something that a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates can 80% finance with the rest of the $ coming from selling various advt and broadcast rights. The lack of such a person could delay the trip indefinitely. I don't see govt or pvt enterprise paying the bill.

-philw