Road to Mars

[ciphergoth]

"As someone who takes incredible pride in the achievement we made both as a country and as a species on July 20, 1969, I can say without reservation that I am in favor of a manned mission to Mars. [...] That is why the Bush administration's recent announcement of a mission to the moon and then to Mars enrages me."



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Comments

grrrrr

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I saw an editorial proposing it be a planned one way trip and I know just who should be sent on that particular voyage. It would be such a waste on him, though.

Argh. I'll be far, far away from any speaker spouting his lies during his big speech tonight.

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

I think Kennedy's motives were as cynical, only on a grand scale.

There is a saying that, if a monkey wants to get to the moon it climbs of a tree and thinks "I made the first step, I'm on my way to the moon". I think if humans collectively want to colonize the planets, or other star systems, sending a few men to the moon or Mars is almost as relevant.

[babysimon]

One of the comments on the blog you link to says:

What NASA needs more than anything is a firm budget commitment with a 10-year horizon

What NASA needs more than anything else is cheap nanotube ribbon with a >100GPa tensile strength. I don't believe manned space flight is remotely worth the time and effort with chemical-fueled rockets. Until we have elevator technology (which may not be long) we should stick to lobbing up commercial satellites with disposable rockets.

[My map, FWIW]