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IMHO, letting politicians and government control the exploration of space, via funding, specs and regulation, is a recipe for disaster.
Look at the "Race to the Moon". Build a giant rocket, throw 99% of it away, and repeat several times. And thanks to those gigantic expenditures, the politicians lost interest in funding mundane projects like permanent orbiters for the earth and the moon. Even the Space Shuttle was an [expletive deleted] mess. The original orbital shuttle was more like the Burt Rutan designed Spaceship one - a small winged rocket that rode upon a jet powered carrier.
But as they say, an elephant is a mouse built to government specs.
From 1969:
Semroc Orbital Transport Rocket Kit (http://www.apogeerockets.com/Semroc_orbital_transport.asp - broken link)
I say yes, but with hesitation. What can we accomplish with a human being that we can't with a robot?
A robot won't take dumb pictures of itself swinging a golf club or planting a flag.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneTraveler
I hope not. Mars is nothing more than a large freezing rock. There is no point in spending billions of dollars to go there.
We'd gain more from that than the whole obamacare bill, in my opinion. The amount of inspiration and innovation required to do it would pay huge dividends to mankind.
I hope not. Mars is nothing more than a large freezing rock. There is no point in spending billions of dollars to go there.
becuase we can and it would be the next step and mars has water so and get enough sun that we could grow food the top layer of soil is on mars has enough nutrients that plants woukld grow in it with a green/house dome and we have our shot at getting a small manned colony.
if we do that with commerical space travel now just starting with in time a hotel there would make a sense later on and would become profitable as at first only the very wealthy could go but it would come down as we advance to make it cheaper to the point it becomes normal/routine like space shuttle lauches and we then if we can atleast get that done by the end of the 21st century then we have accomplished quite a feat and advanced mankind to the next step and begun our colonization of space
I voted no. These days, meaningful technological development has nearly come to a halt. Look back 100 years, only limited portions of major cities even had electricity, the automobile had just begun to be built in some kind of affordable volume, and the first airplane flight had occurred just 5(?) years before. Between 1910 and 1940, power became widespread and common, commercial air travel was "common" and cars and a highway system had been developed. All in about 30 years.
From 1950 to 1970, mankind develops commercial jet liners, build a commercial supersonic transport capable of crossing the Atlantic in what, 2 1/2 hours? They developed the basis of the computer technology in place today. Oh, lets not forget going from putting a tiny satellite in space to putting a man on the moon, in about 10 years.
Since about 1970, what has man accomplished? We have given up on supersonic transport. We haven't had a man beyond earth orbit since what, 1975 or so? Cars are getting just about the same mileage they did back in those days (in the case of smaller cars), and don't go any faster. We have none of the cool things envisioned, such as autonomous or flying cars, let alone home robots being commonplace. We've gone from the Jetsons to Spongebob.
Other than iPhones and toys, what has the most recent generations actually accomplished? (I will grant you major medical accomplishments). Looking back on what happened between 1900 and 1970, this period had to be the most amazing period of technological progress in history. We seem to have largely stagnated. IMO we have become very afraid of risk taking and making major breakthroughs. The whole gimme generation entitlement thing (and I include myself in that, born in '62) may be major factors. Recent generations haven't had to work the way our ancestors did, as such we haven't had that same drive.
My prediction, by 2025 we won't even have the ISS any more, let alone be putting a man on Mars.
I think this will never happened because innovation is not a priority for anybody anymore. It is just about the profit motive.
According to Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents the district of Houston TX, and who served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA, believes we already landed on MARS and the astronauts have already planted a US flag there.
i can't believe toy did not know this. now we need her to run our health care for us, and decide our national energy policy.
The People's Republic of China will probably send a mission to Mars by 2050. They are already researching it.
Yeah, well - the leap from "research" to "mission-ready hardware" is quite big in this sort of endeavor. China's big advantage could be a more relaxed attitude to the safety of the taikonauts, but there's no way to get to Mars by luck.
I voted "No", btw. Currently, no one has even attempted a sample return mission, which is a much lower hurdle to clear and something that has to be pretty much a routine op if a Mars mission is to succeed. And in that respect - robotic probes - NASA (well, JPL, really) is way ahead of anybody.
The only way to get a manned mission? Get a sample return that contains something really interesting.
Yeah, well - the leap from "research" to "mission-ready hardware" is quite big in this sort of endeavor. China's big advantage could be a more relaxed attitude to the safety of the taikonauts, but there's no way to get to Mars by luck.
I voted "No", btw. Currently, no one has even attempted a sample return mission, which is a much lower hurdle to clear and something that has to be pretty much a routine op if a Mars mission is to succeed. And in that respect - robotic probes - NASA (well, JPL, really) is way ahead of anybody.
The only way to get a manned mission? Get a sample return that contains something really interesting.
Developing the hardware and software to get to Mars and back is not the difficulty. We can easily do that today. The problem is getting one or more people to Mars and then back to Earth again alive. If the bone loss from 18+ months in zero gravity does not kill them, then the solar radiation will.
A three day trip to the moon, a mere 250,000 miles away, is nothing like a nine month, 48+ million mile, journey to Mars. The radiation from just one coronal mass ejection will instantly kill anyone not protected by the magnetosphere of the planet Earth. Even Mars does not provide enough protection, unless they can get well underground in time.
Until the bone loss in zero gravity and the solar radiation problems can be solved, there will be no manned mission to Mars.
I voted no. These days, meaningful technological development has nearly come to a halt. Look back 100 years, only limited portions of major cities even had electricity, the automobile had just begun to be built in some kind of affordable volume, and the first airplane flight had occurred just 5(?) years before. Between 1910 and 1940, power became widespread and common, commercial air travel was "common" and cars and a highway system had been developed. All in about 30 years.
From 1950 to 1970, mankind develops commercial jet liners, build a commercial supersonic transport capable of crossing the Atlantic in what, 2 1/2 hours? They developed the basis of the computer technology in place today. Oh, lets not forget going from putting a tiny satellite in space to putting a man on the moon, in about 10 years.
Since about 1970, what has man accomplished? We have given up on supersonic transport. We haven't had a man beyond earth orbit since what, 1975 or so? Cars are getting just about the same mileage they did back in those days (in the case of smaller cars), and don't go any faster. We have none of the cool things envisioned, such as autonomous or flying cars, let alone home robots being commonplace. We've gone from the Jetsons to Spongebob.
Other than iPhones and toys, what has the most recent generations actually accomplished? (I will grant you major medical accomplishments). Looking back on what happened between 1900 and 1970, this period had to be the most amazing period of technological progress in history. We seem to have largely stagnated. IMO we have become very afraid of risk taking and making major breakthroughs. The whole gimme generation entitlement thing (and I include myself in that, born in '62) may be major factors. Recent generations haven't had to work the way our ancestors did, as such we haven't had that same drive.
My prediction, by 2025 we won't even have the ISS any more, let alone be putting a man on Mars.
agreed with no replacement for the shuttle even in sight. we have to get rides up to the ISS with the russians. we can not even get to the space station we help fund and build anymore
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