Submission + - 71 Percent of U.S. See Humans On Mars By 2033 (discovery.com) 2
astroengine writes: "In a recent poll funded by the non-profit Explore Mars, 71% of respondents agreed that the US will send a human to Mars within the next two decades. Unfortunately, on average, the sample of 1,101 people surveyed thought the US government allocated 2.4% of the federal budget to NASA — in reality it's only 0.5%. With this in mind, 75% of the respondents agreed/strongly agreed that NASA's budget should be increased to explore Mars through manned and robotic means."
To put that 71% statistic in context ... (Score:2)
Some years ago CNN did a poll [cnn.com] of Americans, and found that 64% believe aliens have contacted humans, and about half believe in alien abductions. So some of the 71% mentioned above might well expect humans on Mars in twenty years, but that's not necessarily as a result of human effort.
That said despite 64% of respondents believing that aliens have contacted humans, only 54% believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. Either the poll's methodology was shoddy, or there are a lot of stupid people out there.