Originally published in Entrepreneur Magazine

By Scott Laband

Back when all of us were young, children used to gaze at the night sky and dream of being the first to walk on the moon. Today, kids stare at the stars and likely think about Mars in much the same way.

That would be especially appropriate this week because tomorrow, July 20, is the 40th anniversary of the Viking 1‘s landing on Mars — when it became the first spacecraft to successfully accomplish that feat.

Of course, we’re pursuing much more today, when it comes to Mars. It’s likely that the astronaut who will someday take that initial “one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind” on the Red Planet is sitting in a high school classroom in the United States right now, probably taking a summer science enrichment course.

David Gingerich, a senior staff engineer at Lockheed Martin, certainly hopes so. Recently, I spoke with him about the possibility of a crewed flight to Mars, and how we, as a nation, should teach our kids and retool our public education system to help make such a mission happen.