Did you read the article ? They said they didn ' t envision anyone going to Mars before the 2040 ' s , and that the first folks who did would be an international mission . This mission isn ' t talking about a Russian mission although I think they expect they ' d be part of that international missionI disagree with their assertions I think radiation isn ' t as big a deal as they state and that SpaceX will reach Mars long before 2040 , but it ' s interesting to see their views on the matter as the number 2 spacefaring society in all history the Chinese are catching up fast , but their state of the art in space is still what Russia was accomplishing in the early 70 s <| sep |> Very very very very few people <| sep |> I agree , but I don ' t think he ' s particularly quickwitted or particularly wellspoken . Being confident , talented and Irish helps him out a lot . Many of the things he said would sound shit if 1 you didn ' t already love him and 2 he didn ' t say them in an accent everyone loves imo . When he ' s witty he ' s memorable but a lot of the time he ' s unable to come up with anything remotely witty , but people love his responses anyway just because it ' s Conor . I think almost all of his best lines have been prepared which is fine . That ' s true of everyone . But I think a lot of the time when he ' s thinking on his feet he walks a fine line between cool and cringey and if he wasn ' t who he is , the actual words he says would be on the ' cringe ' side of that line pretty often .