[ 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$$es if we had spent hundreds of billions of dollars on risky exploration plans rather than deal with a much more real and pressing problem?
-Zach
Come on guys, exploration of new frontiers has always paid off in the long run. Don't be short-sighted.
There is plenty of pork left in our budgets that should be sacrificed for this type of program.
Besides, if we don't do it, someone will. Maybe the next generation of explorers will all speak Chinese. (Not that there's anything wrong with that! )
[/ QUOTE ]
First of all, short-sighted is throwing hundreds of billions of dollars into a single long-term project when we have much more pressing issues at home. And where is this pork that we can throw at it? I think that there's *plenty* of more pressing issues here we could chuck money at and still let NASA play with it's toys.
And the Chinese just sent a man into space. We don't have to worry about them sending anyone to Mars for a very long time...they're so far behind us it's not even funny. NASA is still THE big dog in space exploration. Look at what happened when the Euros tried to put a lander on Mars (nothing).
I think sending a human to Mars gets people all excited because it sounds so cool, but what everyone needs to realize is 1) just how fricking far away it is, 2) how unconceivably expensive it would be, and 3) how much we're accomplishing with our current, dirt-cheap Mars missions.
[ QUOTE ]
I think we do need a "Manhattan Project"-style effort, however I think we'd be better off spending the multi-billion dollar budget towards discovered a renewable fuel source where we can end our dependence on oil.
The peace dividend alone from cutting our dependence on fossil fuels would probably fund the Mars (or Moon) project ten fold.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is so true. Depending on which estimates you believe, we could be facing serious oil shortages well before a Mars mission becomes possible. Wouldn't we look like jacka$$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