There could be another space race on the horizon with the United States trying to outperform other fierce competitors like China in space exploration.

During his inauguration address last week, President Donald Trump said he believes the next frontier of American exploration is to travel where no human has gone before.

"We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars," Trump said.

Exactly how soon the U.S. can send astronauts to our neighboring planet is unclear. NASA is currently working on technology that could send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

Keith Cowing, editor at NASA Watch, said during his first term, Trump was obsessed with trying to go back to the moon. Now, Mars is the new goal.

"I don't think they've just cancelled it but I don't hear about the moon anymore," said Cowing. "Under Trump 1.0, they were wanting to go back to the moon, but now it's about going to Mars."

Trump's first administration did help create the Artemis program, which aims to send American astronauts back to the moon aboard rockets built by SpaceX through a $2.89 billion contract.

The idea of traveling to the Red Planet certainly has SpaceX CEO Elon Musk excited. He has long discussed the possibilities of sending humans to Mars and inhabiting the planet. His role too in the Trump administration has led the president to being more influenced about space activity.

China has a goal to bring Mars samples back to Earth as soon as 2028. Elon believes the U.S. is on the same trajectory.

"Elon, who has immense rocket ships that he makes, is talking about getting there within three to five years," Cowing said.

As Trump talks about going to Mars, Elon is building the things that will take us there. The major factor that just about any project, especially one of this magnitude, always comes back to is the money.

NASA has acknowledged that sample-return missions are over budget and behind schedule. Last year, Congress reauthorized NASA's budget with a focus on moon exploration, but Trump's recent Mars comments may shift the tides again.

"Who's going to pay for this and if you're going to do this instead of that, whatever that is, what are you not going to do at NASA now since everyone wants to cut all the budgets," Cowing said.

When it comes to the moon, Eric Berger, editor of Space City Weather, said NASA and China both have plans to go there over the next five years.

"China is interested in doing that by 2030 and NASA has an earlier timeline with 2027 but there are some questions about how realistic that is," Berger said.

The original space race back in the 1960s was between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Today, multiple countries now have the ability to do a lot of things in space. Berger said it appears the most competitive country that the U.S. has in space travel at the moment is indeed China.

"The United States and China are definitely in competition in space, both in civil space and in military space," said Berger.

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