At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve.

We're number one on the runway.

Weve got to go [back to the moon]. But we dont want to stay too long. ... The ultimate goal is Mars.

There are a lot of reasons for not doing something. And if humanity had come up with all the reasons for not doing something we wouldn't have spread across the Earth the way we have. There's a curiosity, and I would submit that that curiosity will put human beings on the surface of Mars.

All the Chinese have to do is fly around the Moon and back, and they'll appear to have won the return to the Moon with humans. They could put one person on the surface of the Moon for one day and he'd be a national hero.

You are not going to change the minds of people who are looking for attention.

I'm sure that there are places in the deserts in Australia that could be similar to where we might want to go on Mars.