"How much should a manned mission to Mars cost?"
Academician She: "If we do it ourselves and make full use of space stations in lunar orbit or low Earth orbit for acceleration, we can conservatively estimate the cost to be between 80 and 100 billion yuan; but if we use traditional spacecraft technology, which isn't fundamentally different from what was used for the Moon landings, we won't be able to generate as much technological impact to drive the advancement of technology and economic development."
The Dawn project was hastily assembled but with huge investments, mobilizing the power of nearly all national research institutes and universities, and it was orchestrated by the Aerospace Development Committee to incorporate the strength of private spaceflight as well.
