As proof, she offers the success of SpaceX’s reusable rockets, nearly 25 years of human habitation on the International Space Station and the proliferation of missions to the moon and Mars in the past decade, culminating in NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the moon and plans for the Lunar Gateway space station. She sees these as stepping stones towards tech we need for life off Earth – radiation shields, faster propulsion, long-term life support, off-world fuel production and so on. To drive the point home, Marais envisions an imaginary day on Mars, 10 years from now, complete with abundant, humid greenhouses, lava-tube sleeping quarters and intricate resource management systems drawn from technology she claims we are close to.