 Story highlights Following a 2010 speech, President Barack Obama discussed Tuesday plans for humans to go to Mars 
 
 Seven companies have received awards to develop habitation systems on Mars 
 
 (CNN) President Barack Obama has his eyes on the stars -- or more accurately -- a planet. Echoing what he said in the 2015 State of the Union address, the President wrote, “We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.” Later this week, many of the Nation’s top innovators will come together in Pittsburgh at the White House Frontiers Conference, where they will further explore, among other things, how American investments in science and technology will help us settle “the final frontier” – space. But today, we’re excited to announce two new NASA initiatives that build on the President’s vision and utilize public-private partnerships to enable humans to live and work in space in a sustainable way. And today, Americans are working at more than a thousand companies across virtually every state to support commercial space initiatives and with them, the growth of a new commercial market in Low Earth Orbit. This work aboard the space station is the heart and soul of the first stage of NASA’s Journey to Mars; a stage we call “Earth Dependent.” It is focused on developing technologies and capabilities in earth orbit, where it is still fairly easy for us to directly support humans. Today, thanks to groundwork laid by the men and women of NASA, they own more than a third of it. To that end, Obama announced that the government is "working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space." As a result of the responses, this fall, NASA will start the process of providing companies with a potential opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station.
– President Obama has a Tuesday op-ed on CNN, but he's not writing about Election 2016—or even anything on Earth. Instead, the president announces America's plans for a "giant leap to Mars," with a "clear goal" to get humans to the red planet by the 2030s and then safely back home, with the "ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time." Obama says the government is working in tandem with private commercial firms, an initiative more carefully spelled out in a joint White House/NASA blog post. Seven companies are being funded to start working on "habitation systems" that will one day serve as spacecraft to transport astronauts on deep-space missions, including Mars trips. The second part of the initiative, starting this fall: giving private companies the chance to add their own "modules and other capabilities" onto the International Space Station. CNN notes Obama has long harbored the dream of traveling to Mars, even optimistically saying in a 2010 speech, "I expect to be around to see it." His CNN op-ed reveals that almost childlike excitement about space travel, from his memories of sitting on his grandfather's shoulders to watch astronauts coming home to Hawaii to his tenure as president, when he "vowed to return science to its rightful place"—which he notes the US has since done through expanded NASA technology, ISS innovations, and the creation of private-sector jobs devoted to space exploration. "[The space program] represents an essential part of our character—curiosity and exploration, innovation and ingenuity, pushing the boundaries of what's possible and doing it before anybody else," he writes. Catch his complete op-ed. (What's going to eventually happen to the ISS.)