As the race to Mars heats up, we explore whether NASA can reclaim its leadership against China's ambitious plans for a Mars sample-return mission. With budget challenges and delays pushing NASA's timeline to the 2040s, the stakes are high for the future of space exploration. Additionally, we discuss groundbreaking research revealing that Mars may have been habitable much longer than previously thought, reshaping our understanding of life on the Red Planet.Sources:https://www.csis.org/analysis/can-nasa-win-mars-space-racehttps://www.earth.com/news/when-was-mars-habitable-much-more-recently-than-we-thought/Outline:(00:00:00) Introduction(00:00:41) Can NASA Win the Mars Space Race?(00:04:38) When was Mars habitable? Much more recently than we thought