The space age gained its start in a period of intense technical and social competition between east and west, represented by the Soviet Union and the United States. Competition during the International Geophysical Year resulted in the Soviet Union being the first to launch a satellite into Earth orbit, and served as a challenge and reminder to the United States that technological supremecy was not solely the province of the United States. The start of the Apollo program was a political decision based more on the perception of the political and technological rewards to be gained by attacking a truly difficult objective in a constrained time period. The space race began, the United States won it, and a few years later, the Soviet Union had collapsed.
Fortunately, the Russians did not view the Apollo success as a reason to terminate their program, and they continued to develop capabilities that are fully on a par with United States capabilities in many areas. Also, during the post-Apollo time frame, space capability grew in Europe, with the formation of the European Space Agency, in Japan, China and other countries.
The basis has been laid for a truly international approach to Mars exploration. The exploration of Mars should be an international enterprise.
It would exhibit a great vanity for any country to undertake human exploration of Mars alone, particularly when others, who may not now have the required magnitude of capability or financial resources, do have the underlying technological knowhow. Mars should be an objective in which all humanity can share. An underlying requirement for the Reference Mission is that it be implemented by a multinational group of nations and explorers.