Men have made their mark on the moon, now it's time for women! So this time women will not be just going to the Moon, but Mars. Allison McIntyre, a senior National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said that female astronauts will be chosen to visit the outer space. With the field of space exploration being mostly male-dominated, it has been more than 40 years since NASA chose its first female astronaut.

On BBC Radio 5 Live McIntyre said, "My centre director is a woman, my former division chief is a woman, we have female astronauts, but we haven't put a woman on the moon yet. I think the first person on Mars should be a woman."

Allison heads up the division which prepares potential astronauts for space exploration. The Apollo missions that landed on the Moon took place in 1978 before NASA accepted female astronauts. This was despite 13 women with qualifications similar to that of men applying for the post. Meanwhile, Russia in 1963 which was the Soviet Union sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova into space.

Emily Nelson, a NASA flight director, said that it would just be a 'matter of time' before a woman reached Mars. Other women working for the space agency had the same opinion as McIntyre. In 1983, NASA's first female astronaut to fly in the space shuttle, Sally Ride had to explain she wouldn't need 100 tampons for a week in space.

Keeping gender disparity apart, it is difficult to go to Mars as a safe landing would be extremely difficult. Earlier NASA had said that they can go to Mars only sometime in the 2030s, with budget constraints also in the way.

Also, last year the United States President Donald Trump had signed Space Policy Directive 1, a document that shifts U.S. policy, directing NASA to land astronauts on the moon before sending them on to Mars. While former President Barack Obama directed NASA during his administration to focus on reaching Mars.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2018 03:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).