Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars.......

[zmiller]

[ QUOTE ]
Come on guys, exploration of new frontiers has always paid off in the long run. Don't be short-sighted.

There is plenty of pork left in our budgets that should be sacrificed for this type of program.

Besides, if we don't do it, someone will. Maybe the next generation of explorers will all speak Chinese. (Not that there's anything wrong with that! )

[/ QUOTE ]


First of all, short-sighted is throwing hundreds of billions of dollars into a single long-term project when we have much more pressing issues at home. And where is this pork that we can throw at it? I think that there's *plenty* of more pressing issues here we could chuck money at and still let NASA play with it's toys.

And the Chinese just sent a man into space. We don't have to worry about them sending anyone to Mars for a very long time...they're so far behind us it's not even funny. NASA is still THE big dog in space exploration. Look at what happened when the Euros tried to put a lander on Mars (nothing).

I think sending a human to Mars gets people all excited because it sounds so cool, but what everyone needs to realize is 1) just how fricking far away it is, 2) how unconceivably expensive it would be, and 3) how much we're accomplishing with our current, dirt-cheap Mars missions.

[ QUOTE ]
I think we do need a "Manhattan Project"-style effort, however I think we'd be better off spending the multi-billion dollar budget towards discovered a renewable fuel source where we can end our dependence on oil.

The peace dividend alone from cutting our dependence on fossil fuels would probably fund the Mars (or Moon) project ten fold.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is so true. Depending on which estimates you believe, we could be facing serious oil shortages well before a Mars mission becomes possible. Wouldn't we look like jacka$$es if we had spent hundreds of billions of dollars on risky exploration plans rather than deal with a much more real and pressing problem?

-Zach

 

[tonyw]

I am all for scientific research. It's something that keeps my dad from running to me and asking for money and from driving my mother nuts.

But I just think that we ought to be devoting the funds that are required for this kind of project to other things. For example, if we want to build a spacecraft that will take us to Mars, we will need a lot of talented engineers and scientists. The state of science education in America is horrible. Maybe we should start with that first.

I'm not saying that a Mars program won't have some significant benefits. For one thing, we'll need to improve on the giant roman candle system of propulsion. But we really do need to examine our priorities and see where this fits in.

 

[Kristie]

[ QUOTE ]
Bush later went on to say in his speech.... "It is critical that we reach Mars and build a lasting settlement there.... it is imparative that we do it in a time critical manner, before the enemies of our country beat us to it..."


[/ QUOTE ] now - this is stupid dummyhead talk... build a lasting settlement? what are we - reenvisioning the swartzenegger (sp?) total recall movie?? should we send him there to do it as well? hahaha

and getting to mars before our "enemies" do? i dont think that could happen but even if it did - so what.. good for them.. and then they'd have to be sharing the information with the rest of us and start being diplomatic woudn't they?! maybe that could help solve some of our foreign problems? by not taking the helm, we give "others" a chance?? thereby making a more "unified" world vs a "we have to be the biggest, grandest and bestest country in the world and if you don't like it, too bad - you all suck anyways" world... hahahaha

(did that make any sense?)

 

[SteveC]

[ QUOTE ]
Bush later went on to say in his speech.... "It is critical that we reach Mars and build a lasting settlement there.... it is imparative that we do it in a time critical manner, before the enemies of our country beat us to it..."

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought Bush was giving his speech next week.

 

[FL270]

I am fairly certain that the Bush "quote" from the as-yet-undelivered speech was someone's idea of humor. I didn't laugh, but that's just me.

FL270

 

[derg]

Ahhhnold: "Get yo AHHS to MAAAAHS"

 

[Mr_Creepy]

"I asked for sharks with laser beams and I get a mutant sea bass? Throw me a frickin' bone people. I've been frozen for 30 years!"