I find it befitting that on this day, 40 years ago the US won the space race against Russia I had a conversation via twitter with Josh about NASA’s budget. I started to think about how the shuttle is going to be retired next year and no replacement for 5 years will be available. The new Moon Lander will not be operational until 2015 and plans to reach Mars by 2020 are a bit ambitious.

I was thinking about the great advancements the US has done in space. But only one thought stuck in my mind as I saw up into the sky, the International Space Station.

The ISS is a collaboration between many Space Agencies from various countries but with a similar goal. That got me thinking. Getting to Mars shouldn’t just be a goal for NASA but of all Space Agencies around the world. They are probably working on it as I write this, so why don’t we collaborate?

It will help reduce cost on individual agencies. The best and brightest minds could work together regardless of nationality. It wouldn’t just be an achievement of one country, one continent, one hemisphere but it would be an accomplishment of the world, the human race, to reach Mars. We no longer have a space race, we should try to help each other in common goals.

If a collaboration was able to produce ISS in 1998, I can only imagine what these agencies are capable producing now.