Maybe it's just me, but I do not believe that the first manned mission to Mars will generate as much passion "across the globe" as did Apollo 11.

The first landing on the Moon was the first human touch ever of another heavenly body. It was something totally unique.

Mars is farther away, it's stone-strewn desert has a somewhat different colour than the ashen-gray desert of the Moon, but if it wasn't for the possibility of finding LIFE there, I don't think most people would care as much about a manned Mars mission as they did about the first Moon landing. Maybe the life-thing will do it.

But maybe the first men on Mars will be Chinese, and the Chinese will be passionate as *** about the landing, while the west has other interests.