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mission to mars not so far off

I think that's great! I'd love to do it! I've wanted to be an astronaut since I was a very young child. I hope that one day we are able to send humans to explore Mars. I'm sure there would be a lot of interesting discoveries made if we could ever set foot on that planet.

In the meanwhile, I'll just keep planning another trip to Disney to ride Mission Space again ;) Now that is an awesome ride!
 
Having not been alive in the 60s/70s I don't have first hand knowledge, but seeing 'Catch Me if You Can' and hearing that it was accurate I see a parallelism here. Then, airline pilots were respected as the heros of our nation in a way that I don't think today's respect even comes close. However, I do see the same respect and reverence for astronauts. They are the modern pilots, frontiersmen, and heros of America. I wonder if the airline revolution so that anyone can fly will ever take off in the space industry. Maybe not. Airlines bridge a gap between people, and both sides wanted the advancement. Unfortunately for NASA, there are no little Lunarians or Martians that are going to help us out by building runways or bases. The journey into space is one sided, and it is obvious that it has suffered greatly for that.
 
well they better hurry up with it or they'll have to wait another couple of years till its in the right position again... hohman transfer and all...
 
I am totally willing to check a "Donate $15 of your tax return to Mars Mission" box on my tax forms. Why has the gov never thought to ask the public to donate. They could count it as an on the spot write-off. Better yet, it could be a blank box that let you write in a dollar amount, then deduct that amount from the income box. Everyone needs a write off!

Sort of off topic, but all my crazy liberal friends (severe leftists, to the nth degree) are totally against the mars thing. Their reason.... Bush is giving the speech on it! WOW. Next they'll protest air, because Bush breathes it!
 
Moon

With China planning to land on the moon, I guess some one some where thinks that "We must be the first to Mars too". Then we can have a new debate on "Did America really put a man/woman on Mars?"
You can almost hear the speech now (just in time for elections of course)
"In the next 10 years we will land on the surface of Mars"

Si
 
Re: Moon

Originally posted by Chappers
With China planning to land on the moon, I guess some one some where thinks that "We must be the first to Mars too". Then we can have a new debate on "Did America really put a man/woman on Mars?"
You can almost hear the speech now (just in time for elections of course)
"In the next 10 years we will land on the surface of Mars"

Si
Click to expand...

That's GOOD! All America needs is a little competition and they're off. That is a critical part of the space advancement and will continue to be until they find a real value for space travel. What drove the US to go to the moon? Fierce competition from Russia (remember, Russia sent the first object to space - Sputnik). If competition from China is going to drive the US to go to Mars, Jupiter, hell, even out of the galaxy, so be it. Space advancement is the next logical step in the evolution of mankind, and unless we start making some progress here, we'll be filled to our own necks.



irmongoose
 
Re: Re: Moon

Originally posted by irmongoose
That's GOOD! All America needs is a little competition and they're off. That is a critical part of the space advancement and will continue to be until they find a real value for space travel. What drove the US to go to the moon? Fierce competition from Russia (remember, Russia sent the first object to space - Sputnik). If competition from China is going to drive the US to go to Mars, Jupiter, hell, even out of the galaxy, so be it. Space advancement is the next logical step in the evolution of mankind, and unless we start making some progress here, we'll be filled to our own necks.



irmongoose
Click to expand...

That is why Kennedy launched the Apollo missions. That is why Reagan initiated the space shuttle and the ISS (though the latter was conceived originally to be a US space station)

The only reason for the shuttle is heavy lifts. We need a new heavy lifter. The shuttle is getting long in the tooth.
 
Well, its nice they're playing around up North, but getting to the North Pole is an awful lot easier than making it to Mars :D

It will be a while before we get there - all this research will help, but not necessarily speed up the launch date.

D
 
i really think it would be neat to see leaps and bounds in the space program. it is whats next in my opinion. while it may be far off that we have lots of traffic up there i think we will someday and might as well start early!
 
Yes, I'm all for a mission to Mars. NASA really needs something to pick themselves up after the Columbia accident.
 
A great idea that I support 110%, but at the same time I'm sure that if Bush is in charge of it he will find a way to screw it up.
 
im all for space exploration...but it seems like we have enough problems here on earth.

how about we take care of ourselves before we start infecting the rest of our solar system...


peace.


btw- shouldn't china be more worried about thier population growth and thier 'sanitation' system??? and the us...how can we go to mars just to brag when we can't even feed and house our citizens???
 
Originally posted by kuyu
Sort of off topic, but all my crazy liberal friends (severe leftists, to the nth degree) are totally against the mars thing. Their reason.... Bush is giving the speech on it! WOW. Next they'll protest air, because Bush breathes it!
Click to expand...

I'm leftist to the "nth degree", and I like the idea of a Mars mission.

The reason 99% of leftists don't is because they would rather put our money towards helping out the poor, domestic issues, etc. before anything else--space travel included. (It's not just because it's Bush's suggestion.)

But anyway... no more from me, or this will have to end up in the politics section.
 
Originally posted by cosmicsoftceo
I'm leftist to the "nth degree", and I like the idea of a Mars mission.

The reason 99% of leftists don't is because they would rather put our money towards helping out the poor, domestic issues, etc. before anything else--space travel included. (It's not just because it's Bush's suggestion.)

But anyway... no more from me, or this will have to end up in the politics section.
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to stereotype all "leftists." The key word was "crazy." My friends are "crazy." They are pretty much uninformed rebellious youths just trying to be unlike their parents. However, many extremely intelligent people are quite a bit left of center, and the world is better for it.
 
Sure it sounds great - but the reality is so much more difficult. It might be too much scifi in the media that everyone thinks we can just build a ship and fly around the solar system.

How many robotic probes have been lost on trips to Mars in the past decade? Quite a few and Japan just scrubbed theirs this week after they couldn't get it to work.

So much has to be done before we pick the astronauts to fly the thing. Starting up north to figure out the difficulties is great, but remember, there's plenty of water and oxygen up there, even though it might be cold. It will be a lot more difficult to get that on Mars.

Ideally, several unmanned missions will be sent ahead of the manned mission to do all the logistics for keeping them alive and getting them back. Send out landers for living quarters, ice processing systems to create water that can be used as fuel and oxygen. Power generators and orbiting systems for a Martian GPS system etc.

Once all that's in place and you have redundant systems to help insure that even if things go wrong the astronauts have options so far from home - then you go.

I don't see that happening any time in the next 15 years at least. And I can't imagine this would be done as an Apollo project - it would be too dangerous.

D
 
It is sad that so many of our Mars missions have led to a disaster. This is where the use of humans can often prevent disaster. Two examples are the fine work of the astronauts and the ground crew of Apollo 11 & 13.
 
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