Wondery Presents American Innovations: Mission to Mars

On July 20th, 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced his vision for a manned mission to Mars. Nearly 3 months later, NASA published a complex 30 year plan to get humans to Mars - with a hefty price tag - nearly $450 billion dollars. However, Congress refused to authorize the spending, and NASA’s manned mission to Mars was grounded before it could even get started. Over 30 years later, the power of government and big business necessary for such an undertaking is finally starting to come together and now the next chapter of humankind’s space-race is on. American Innovations: Mission to Mars explores what advancements have been made and what it will take to send humans to Mars. Listen at wondery.fm/missiontomars

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When public health is threatened on a mass scale, we have a long history of working together to take on the challenge. As the host of Wondery’s American Innovations, Steven Johnson has told the stories of some of the most crucial breakthroughs in health, medicine, and technology. He’s also the author of one of the seminal books on epidemics, “The Ghost Map.”On this new weekly series, Steven will speak with experts from the worlds of health and technology about how the current moment compares with past pandemics, and what the coming months might look like. What will it take to develop a COVID-19 vaccine? How will our educational system change? How can crowdsourcing help us battle the spread of the coronavirus? We’ve vanquished more dangerous threats before. Let’s roll up our sleeves and tackle this one together.