Nasa rover breaks down on Mars

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
I apologize for coming across as insulting Snowy. I mean no offense.

Appology accepted, thanks.

A simple Google search of phrases like "Mars trip difficulties" will point you to many articles (mostly from the States and Russia, NASA included) that have to deal with the difficulties astronauts will face in going to Mars.

Oh, I certainly agree that there are difficulty issues. There have been plenty of those with any manned (or unmanned) trip into space. But they aren't insurmountable.

To ask the average rocket-scientist about the feasibility of going to mars is like asking Emiril about the tastyness of food. Of course, they want to believe in our ability to go to the Red Planet. Why do you think they pursued those fields in the first place? Take their "information" with the same grain of salt which you would anything coming from The Mars Society.

Except that one of the speakers was a specialist in the field. He was talking specifically about the state of technology as it relates to the manned space program and exploration of the solar system. I'd tend to take his opinion with a bit of a smaller grain of salt, at least as it relates to the question of whether or not we're technologically capable.

I don't want to be snide. You believe this is going to happen soon. I don't. You're a hopeless romantic. I'm a negative ninny. But in the end, we'll both be happy if this happens anywhere within our lifetimes.

- j

Alas, I really don't. I don't think that the public has the interest spend the money to do it. I guess my best hope is that space does become privatized. The private sector has a far better record of pushing things to happen faster than government, at least in some areas.

My understanding is that, here in the US anyway, NASA is a government supported monopoly. That is to say that it would be illegal for me to form my own space agency and launch rockets into space on US soil.

And, also, weren't the explorers of old private adventurers most of the time? Granted they had government sponsorship, but they weren't expeditions created by the government.

Yeah, we'll both be happy to see it in our lifetime...