But attitudes have moved on and leading engineers at NASA have said that the first person to set foot on Mars should be a woman. The space agency aims to have a gender-balanced workforce but can only achieve that if equal numbers of men and women train for science and technology careers. As Allison McIntryre, Chief of the NASA Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility, told the BBC: "My director is a women, my former division chief is a woman. We have female astronauts. We haven't put a woman on the Moon yet. And I think that perhaps the first person to step on Mars should be a woman."

A woman landing on Mars would be an incredible achievement for being a first for womankind and would, for some, be out of this world! It would certainly inspire a younger female generation by showing what is possible. For them, the thought of other planets being a men-only destination, would be an alien concept.

词汇表 humankind 人类

exploration 探索

cosmonaut（前苏联的）宇航员

push the boundaries      挑战极限，突破极限

mission control 航天地面指挥中心

spaceflight components 航天组件

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) 美国国家航空航天局

mission（航天）任务

mathematician 数学家

blast off（太空飞船等）发射

astronaut 宇航员

the Moon 月球

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