The race to Mars is the Trump administration’s new moonshot. How soon can the U.S. actually get there?
Friday, March 7, 2025
31 min
So… are we going to Mars?
In this illustration made available by NASA, the Perseverance rover casts off its spacecraft's cruise stage before entering the Martian atmosphere. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
As Elon Musk leads a project to drastically remake the federal government, one goal might be fueling it all: getting to Mars.
It’s an objective that President Donald Trump seems to share. In his inaugural address on Jan. 20, Trump promised that the U.S. would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
But what are the obstacles to get to the Red Planet?
Host Martine Powers speaks with space reporter Christian Davenport about the U.S. ambitions to get to Mars — and how the country, along with private space companies, could actually get there.
Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Reena Flores with help from Renita Jablonski and Maggie Penman.
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