Check out the Euro's! The Link I like it, I think. Man making a gesture to go forth is cool. What do you think? What are the limitations? How much would a mission to take 6 people or so cost? Should the US get serious about this?
I think so. Mainly because the human race is one of discovery . There's a great line by Sam Seaborn in the West Wing when asked about the costs of maintaing a space program. and trying again to put a rover type machine on Mars. Obviously paraphrasing he says ' because we came out of the cave, looked over the hill and saw fire. We crossed the oceans we settled the west and Mars is next, it's what's next'. Thought it was fantastic writing, and I totally agree with it. I hope it happens and I hope just like the moon, it's the United States planting the flag on Mars first.
Claiming Mars is the easypart . Convincing the state of Oklahoma to pack up and move there is where things get tricky.
the best part about an aggressive space program are all the accidental technologies that follow. hello freeze dried ice cream. hello computers. well, some work out.
I think colonizing the moon or mars will pose interesting dilemmas for environmentalists who will really, really want to protect non-existing environments (since nothing lives in those places). Heck, I'd move there just so I could throw my trash anywhere I want without damaging anything(I do realize this option is already available in Oklahoma).
I don't think we will be on Mars in the next 20 years...maybe in the next 40 or 50. And it will cost many trillions of dollars. It will undoubtedly be the biggest and most amibitious project ever undertaken by mankind...also the most exciting and potentially the most rewarding. And I also want America to plant the flag there. f**k YEAH!
You could move oklahoma to Mars but stoops would still recruit Earth players. You know whats happening when you see the Big Red Spaceship dealership open up..
As someone who works in the business, I assure you it won't happen. There's no national will to do things like that and I doubt there ever will be again. The problem isn't a gutless NASA, it's a gutless America.
I have to ask: Why would we send people to Mars??? First, a suicide mission would be senseless. We would spend a gigantic amount of money to send a handful of people to Mars so we can all listen on radio to them slowly run out of food/water/air and die??? No thanks. So there has to be a return trip. But this means the rocket needs to carry these people, food/water/air for c. 2 years, radiation shielding, fuel to carry all this back to Earth, and face the real possibility of one of the astronauts flipping out from being in the same room with people for 2 years straight, without a single second away. Or we could send robots, which can already do a lot, and are getting better very rapidly. There *is* a great future in robotic space exploration, but if we blow all the available resources on PR exercises, then it won't get done.
I wish we would but I don't think it'll happen in the next 50 years. There are too many obstacles to overcome for a safe round trip ticket. I agree w/ Hayden that the technology to come out of it would be amazing but I just don't think we have the desire or MONEY to do it. I'd think a trip to Mars would make the bailout money look like chump change. We'll be paying off "stimulus" debt for at least two generations, probably more.
as cool as it would be, i really wish we could use the millions and billions that would cost to help develop a cure for cancer.
I think it would be awesome to send people to Mars, and I love the space program, but I think that money could be better spent feeding people -- Americans -- who don't have enough to eat.
I certainly hope we make it in 20 years so I can enjoy the time share I just purchased there from some guy named Sam.
Send the smart people who are in jail for life- teach them aeronautics and whatever else they need and tell them they are going to Mars and won't be coming back- we get exploration- they get freedom(and a possible death sentence) Seriously... why not spend the trillions of dollars on things that will benefit the world we do live in. I mean space is cool and all, but we've got people- good people- dying of disease that we could possibly put an end to if we put the financing their way instead of trying to probe some dry, desolate planet that we compare to the likes of Oklahoma- only colder! And by the way... Mars look a lot better than Oklahoma. Who the flip wants to go there? Or maybe with trillions of dollars we could eradicate the hunger propblem in the world... maybe supply those without clean water... with clean water. Maybe we could do some good instead of just going on a space adventure- no matter how cool it seems.
Just a few benefits we now enjoy as a result of America's space program: -Satellite television broadcasts / instantaneous world wide TV coverage - Cordless power tools and appliances - Smoke detectors - Home water filtering systems (During the Apollo program, NASA developed a system to sterilize the astronauts' drinking water. This method included the use of ions (an atom or group of atoms carrying a positive or negative electrical charge) as part of the water filtering system.) - Home insulation (Smart-House Radiant Barriers) - "Cool" Laser Heart Surgery - Needle (vs. scalpel) breast biopsies (The procedure costs about $850 compared to about $3500 for traditional biopsy surgery. The new procedure also saves the patient time and pain, and leaves only a small needle mark rather than a large scar.) - Digital image processing - Artificial limb technology (he shuttle designed External Tank foam is now used to make molds for the fitting of artificial limbs.It is able to reduce the costs of making an artificial limb, which lowered the cost for patients.) - Infrared thermometers - Light emitting diodes (LED's) -Composite surgical foreceps (prevent the physician from exerting too great a force in infant delivery). - Pill-Sized Transmitter Fetus Monitors - Early Disease Prediction Through Chromosome Analysis - Digital Mammography - Cosmetics firms such as Estee Lauder are now using image processing software originally developed by NASA. -Beauty makeover computer programs - Sunglasses: scratch resistant lenses & that block types of light - blue, violet, and ultraviolet - that could hurt the eyes - Sport stadium roofs ("moonsuit" roofs) - Football helmet padding - Improved golfball aerodynamics - Firefighter Breathing Systems - "Jaws of Life" rescue equipment - Historic document (such as the Constitution) & art monitor protection - Landsat imagery & mapping - the Dead Sea Scrolls processing (Some of these parchments were supplied to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, revealing previously "invisible" [faded] writing) - Virtual reality technology - Microlasers - Global tele-communications/solid state high-power transmitters - Aircraft "lightening-proof" equipment - Aircraft windshear protection - Aircraft Collision Avoidance Systems - Farming advancements (i.e., soil-less crops) - Oil spill control/cleanup technology NASA: Benefits from Space Tech
I hope not: it's a waste of money. A better use of those funds would be to detect objects that are in a path to collide with Earth.
I'm familiar with the issues, your snottiness. I actually follow the subject with sources a little more dedicated than is The Atlantic. That said, I appreciate that the Easterbrooke article is enough to make you feel informed... its cute. Despite The Atlantic's status as a respected astronomy journal, simply saying "The sky is falling" is not enough. The effectiveness of any preparedness system comes down to two parts (1) early warning, and (2) the capacity for engineered response. There is an obvious deficiency between our current level of preparedness on those two fronts and the problem is with the latter. If we want to have any hope of dealing with a collision event, then we need to have the capacity to quickly put a lot of hardware into space. We need get the public invested in the concept of expensive deep missions with prolonged commitment. A Mars mission is in no way counter to these goals. If a collision event is of any concern to you, you should be 100% on board with extended heavy NASA missions... just like the type of a Mars shot. They begin to put answers to the most important part of dealing with a collision, the part where you actually do something about it.
