[marron]

Humans will not walk across the Red Planet for decades to come, Figueroa predicted. "A human mission to Mars is really not in our agenda at the moment," he said.

Then he should resign. I am looking for the man who will design and execute a mission to put human explorers on Mars within a decade. That's "one" decade, not decades.

[Cincinatus]

Then he should resign. I am looking for the man who will design and execute a mission to put human explorers on Mars within a decade. That's "one" decade, not decades.

Figueroa is in charge of the Mars mission set of unmanned spacecraft missions, so he has no authority or influence over human space missions.

The person who does have such authority (the Associate Administrator for (manned) Space Flight) has no budget to do it. Nor is one likely forthcoming. Hence, the "decades" remark.