Mars: Let's hear some feedback on the issue.

Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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Other than a psychological boost I have not heard a single other benefit for a manned flight to Mars.

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As he listens to XM radio and watched Direct TV....
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Often times, we reap more from the indirect results than the original mission.

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Ahhh but a good number of advances in aviation came from people spending their own money and tinkering with it. Yes the government also contributed but also a large number of advances were made by people paying out of their own pocket to make better, faster airplanes.


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I think that's right on the money.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

Let's go.

I can't believe a bunch of pilots don't want us to go to mars. What if the wrights had decided to just give up on flying because they didn't see any benefits to it. And to the person who said that we have no chance of ever living on mars permanently, do you think that anyone in 1903 thought that in less than 70 years we would have aircraft that weighed half a million pounds, had other aircraft capable of carrying 100 passengers across the Atlantic in 3 hours, and had another craft capable of safely delivering explorers to the moon (the freaking moon - think about how huge that is for a second)?

I agree with Doug that NASA has alot of issues to work out, they have lost their sense of enginnering daring, and are now largely a bureaucracy that is stuck on things like safety, which quite frankly I don't think they were as concerned with 30 years ago. I'm an aero engineer and I know that most quality and systems engineers couldn't enginner their way out of a paper sack, and NASA is probably topheavy with those types. Let the real engineers get to work and they will bring back the glory days of Apollo. The first astronauts were test pilots, and accepted danger; we need some new astronauts that are willing to put their lives on the line to accomplish something awesome, not see how earthworms mate in zero-g.

I'd go right now if they'd let me, even if I knew there was a good chance I'd die trying. Thats about the most honorable way to die next to storming the beaches at Normandy.

BTW - I'm biased - I grew up about 2 miles from JSC, and now my wife works at KSC - but dangit we should go, we'll always have problems to deal with here, people are generally pretty messed up so social issues will never go away. We need to do more...
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

The most energy efficient path to mars takes about 8 and a half months, but the journey can be made in a little over 6 months if a little extra fuel is expended up front. It can't take less than that time, however - at least not as long as we can only use chemical rockets, and right now there is absolutely no alternative to that. I think the probability of a manned mission to Mars in the next 10 years is ZERO, and only slightly above zero for a mission within the next 20 years, and only very slightly increasing odds after that. Aside from the absolutely horrendous economic cost of trying to keeps somebody alive and on their own for two years on a Mars mission, we really and truly do not know howto keep a person alive for that long in space. A sad truth of the matter is that keeping a person alive in space is not a very scientifically efficient way to explore the solar system. Virtually every thing we know of the planets in the solar system comes from unmanned robot spacecraft of which it would be possible to build dozens on the annual manned-shuttle budget.

In any case, don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer that every opportunity for space exploration should be taken. I just think, however, that as long as chemical rockets are all we have, manned space efforts are completely worthless. We should be launching armadas of robot space probes to do our exploring - virtually all the science return that has come from space exploration comes from robot explorers, not manned ones.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

I think it could be beneficial if 1) we partnered with other countries to make it a multi-national task. Politics pretty much fueled the space race in the 50s and 60s. It didn't matter how much it cost, as long as we got there before the Russians. We don't have that kind of kick anymore. 2) if while testing for the trip, a new fuel is developed that will get is off the damn oil dependecy. However, I don't think Exxon, Texaco, Chevron, OPEC, etc will roll over and let that happen.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

Agreed that NASA is hamstrung by beauracracy (did I spell that right?). No it's "bureaucracy" - thank you AOL dictionary!

I am ashamed that a rich american had to go to RUSSIA in order to go in orbit. NASA refused his money!

I'd like to see private firms do something about Mars. Any ideas?
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

I'd like to go to Mars, and I'd also like to see a hypersonic transport. Everyone keeps forgetting about the "aeronautical" part of NASA...

Remember, it was the Wright Brothers who started flying, but others took it, ran with it, and made it what it is today.

I hope the X-Prize truly reaches its potential in opening a market for private enterprise space-based ventures.

Perhaps Bill Gates can finance a trip to Mars or something. You know those crazy millionaires who keep wanting to fly around the world non-stop in hot air balloons or composite aircraft. Maybe someone can convince them to finance a trip to Mars?
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

I never said that the US should be the only one funding the operation. I just think that steady progress towards exploration should be made, with a strong emphasis on developing technologies to support humans in hostile environments.

It is possible, I think to be fiscally responsible and technologically savvy. We just need collaboration.

G
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

I think that it is human nature to explore new places (read: Magellal, Columbus, Vikings, Jacques Cousteau, Apollo Space Program, etc...). However, I also think that given our current situation, a trip to Mars would be like getting laid off and trying to purchase a Maybach. I also think that the energy and resources required to get us to Mars could be better used to improve life on Earth first. I would definitely like to see a manned Mars mission in my lifetime though!

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...going to a planet that we have no chance of ever inhabiting????

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It's a long way off into the future, but here's an interesting article from Howstuffworks.com: How Terraforming Mars Will Work. It's an interesting insight into the possibility of making Mars a more habitable place, like Earth, by heating Mars' atmostphere and creating and melting the icecaps to form oceans and so on. Will it happen? Impossible to say now; it'd be a huge task given our current technology, but don't forget that there was a time when people thought manned flight was impossible, or travelling past the sound barrier or going to the moon. Either way, I'm sure we'll be long gone by the time man gets that far.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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I guess I need to hear a compelling argument for why we need a manned flight to Mars.

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The reason we need to send a manned mission to Mars is so that we can actually say, "We (mankind) have been to Mars."

A species can send all the remote technology it wants to another world, but it still has not set its own foot on that world until that species has been to that world.

Whenever I think of the issue, Kennedy's words ring in my ears, "We choose these things because they are difficult." Isn't that reason enough...I'm positive that the reason many of us became pilots was because of the thought of the challenge.

It is because of the challenge that many different organizations are working towards new technologies for space exploration. An example would be that of the university (I apologize, I cannot remember the specific one) that is currently working with Anti-matter as a possible fuel. The total cost of development will not be totally taken by the U.S. Remember, NASA did not invent the "rocket".
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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The reason we need to send a manned mission to Mars is so that we can actually say, "We (mankind) have been to Mars."

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Who we gonna say that to.... each other?
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Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

Okay, so I'll be showing my lefty commie roots here, but so be it.

Instead of devoting money to putting a man on Mars, why don't we do something like devoting it to producing an alternate method for fueling our transportation infrastructure?

For all the advances we've seen in the past 100 years in virtually everything -- we went from cloth planes to hypersonic spy planes, from computers that took up rooms and needed refrigeration systems to ones that fit in the palm of your hand, and so on -- we've relied on the same fuel.

You want a difficult project? We'd only have to find a way to make something so efficient that it gets people to abandon the fossil fuel based systems we have now.

You want a definite payoff? Well, wouldn't it be nice to tell OPEC to go stick it where the sun don't shine since we don't need their oil anymore? Wouldn't it be nice to have a clean, non-polluting source of energy?

I'd rather see our scarce resources devoted to that than putting a man on Mars.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

<humorous sarcasm>

Tony, Tony, Tony... Report immediately to the re-education camp near the Politiburo. The address is in the latest issue of Pravda and conveniently near Gorky Park. Uncompliance may land you in the jetcareers work camp!
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</humorous sarcasm>
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

Tony I don't find that lefty commie at all! I would LOVE to see an alternative energy source, and tell OPEC to stick all that oil up their ....

Well you know ...
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

Tony, that won't happen because all of the money from the oil companies tells politicians not to lead in that direction.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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I guess I need to hear a compelling argument for why we need a manned flight to Mars.

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The reason we need to send a manned mission to Mars is so that we can actually say, "We (mankind) have been to Mars."

A species can send all the remote technology it wants to another world, but it still has not set its own foot on that world until that species has been to that world.



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Thats about the most asinine thing i've ever heard.
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Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

And you are so credible with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" as your avatar?

Put down the ether boy. Step away from the ether bottle!
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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The reason we need to send a manned mission to Mars is so that we can actually say, "We (mankind) have been to Mars."

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I’m not even close to comfortable with spending that kind of money just so we can say we went. I want to hear scientists from all related fields charged up about the benefits. Other than people inside the space program there has yet to be strong scientific support for the idea. That is a rather important detail to me.
 
Re: Mars: Let\'s hear some feedback on the issue.

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And you are so credible with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" as your avatar?

Put down the ether boy. Step away from the ether bottle!

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Ether or not - I stand by my statement!
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Wasting trillions in tax dollars just to say -we, mankind have been there is Asinine!
 
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