If we were able to send people to the Moon and return them safely to the earth several times with the primitive technology we had in the 60s, surely we have the technological know-how to send people to Mars and back today. We just lack the willpower.

I think we lack the willpower because there’s no competitor threatening to beat us there and embarrass us… Maybe if China were within striking distance of doing it, we’d get off our asses.

Here’s astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining how we could do it today, and why it’s so important for us to strive to be trailblazers again: