The first person on Mars ‘should be a woman’

It is no surprise that women are the minority at NASA. Women are a minority in the STEM fields in general. A recent BBC article interviewed women at NASA and got their perspectives on what role they wanted women to play as NASA moves forward. Overwhelmingly, these women wanted the first astronaut on Mars to be female. They also discussed that it was important to them to have administrators who were females, but there seemed to be something really significant about having a woman step foot on Mars, especially since a woman has never stepped foot on the Moon. Considering the political climate surrounding funding for space exploration, do you believe we will get to Mars anytime soon? If so, what are the chances you think our society would be okay with placing a woman on Mars first?