“The goal is to have us there in the early 30s. They won’t land, they’ll probably do an orbital mission like the first time we went to the Moon. We’ve got to get the Martian surface ready for human habitation.
“We’re not going to send humans down to the surface of Mars to build the habitats, the houses, we’re probably going to use robots.
“Our technical abilities are not what we want it to be now. We need better life support systems, we need a toilet that’s not going to break on the way there, then when we get to the Martian surface we need (a toilet) that’s going to work over and over again. Toilets are a big deal.”
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Major Bolden was also asked if he became frustrated by conspiracy theorists who claimed the Moon landing was faked.
“I understand people have doubts,” he said. “I have no doubts we went to the moon and I have no doubts that we’re going to mars in your lifetime.”
Mr Bolden was answering questions for the children’s newspaper First News show Hotseat which is broadcast on Sky News.