We are 50 years into the Space Age, but there's still a lot of Space out there we haven't been to, like Mars for example. Mars has always been the target of a lot of sci-fi mystique, but the closest we've come to penetrating its secrets is sending a rover. Not for long, though: NASA has announced that they aim to send a man to Mars by 2037.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin explains during the international astronautics conference in India how he hopes that 100 years into the Space Age, mankind "should be celebrating 20 years of man on Mars." An international space station is already being built out in space, hopefully completed by 2010 and will become mankind's "toehold in space."

Upon completion, the space station will serve to become our bridge to the Moon and Mars. Griffin explains: "We are looking at the moon and Mars to build a civilisation for tomorrow and after that." Robots will be sent for missions on the moon next year to do research on extended space travel for humans and to prepare for future spaceflights.

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is also being sent to the Martian landscape to find out whether the planet can support life. It's already recently been found that the Martian south pole contains water. Perhaps they'll also find that Decepticon who trashed the first Martian probe.