Getting to Mars, whatever it takes

Sending manned missions to Mars is essential, according to Pierre Brisson, the president of Mars Society Switzerland, "because we can." We spoke with him about this challenge while he was at EPFL recently to give a talk. Pierre Brisson, a planetology enthusiast who heads the Swiss chapter of the Mars Society, believes in the need to send people to Mars. He recently gave a talk at EPFL on the technical challenges we still need to overcome to get to the red planet - the only one he believes we could ever reach - and set up a colony. Why are you so interested in Mars? I've always been passionate about physical geography, planetology and things related to space in general. But what interests me about Mars is that it's the only planet where we could one day live. And it's much more interesting than the Moon - a natural satellite whose geological evolution ground to a near halt much earlier.