New Mars Forums

Then we're not getting our money's worth, as far as manned space flight goes....

http://space.com/news/europe_moon_040203.html

Europe Plans Human Missions to Moon and Mars
By Jane Wardell
Associated Press
posted: 05:10 pm ET
03 February 2004

LONDON (AP) _ European scientists set out a route map Tuesday for manned missions to Mars that aims to land astronauts on the Red Planet in less than 30 years.

Like U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed mission to Mars, the plan put forward by the European Space Agency involves a "stepping stone'' approach, which includes robotic missions and a manned trip to the Moon first. 

"We ***  What's this "we" stuff?!  ***  need to go back to the Moon before we go to Mars. We need to walk before we run,'' said Dr. Franco Ongaro, who heads the ESA's Aurora program for long-term exploration of the solar system, at a meeting of Aurora scientists in London. "These are our stones. They will pave the way for our human explorers.''

The ESA has planned two flagship missions to Mars _ ExoMars would land a rover on the planet in 2009, and Mars Sample Return would bring back a sample of the Martian surface in 2011-14.

Other test missions will include a non-manned version of the flight that would eventually carry astronauts to Mars to demonstrate aerobraking, solar electric propulsion and soft landing technologies.

A human mission to the Moon, proposed for 2024,  *** 20 years just to get to the moon!  What's the rush???   *** would demonstrate key life-support and habitation technologies, as well as aspects of crew performance and adaptation to long-distance space flight.

Alll I can think of right now is:  WOW!!!

Thanks for posting that....

I'm afraid you are correct. 

So what would actually inspire Americans to fund a manned mission to Mars?

I'm very frustratred with our "manned" space program over the past 30+ years.  I'm not happy that we cannot afford to go to Mars now.

The lack of public support for this very important exploration shows how far the United States has fallen, imo.

Not necessarily....

The hacking could have been done before the launch.

.02

Sorry.  That term is one of my few pet peeves.... 

Call it the far side, as opposed to the near side.  Call it the away side.  Call it the back side.  But don't call it the dark side.

Please.

Thank you.

1.  No, but you might enjoy this thread:

http://www.arn.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?u … 3;t=000952

In fact, you might enjoy that whole board.  It has some very interesting threads about the highly intelligent design of life.  Here's another link about the machines of life:

http://www.doegenomestolife.org/program/goal1.html

And one on IBM's attempt to reverse engineer life:

http://www.research.ibm.com/FunGen/

2.  Okay.  You're most likely correct in your comparison.  God's incredible design, assembly and programming of life is far beyond human capability.  However I only mentioned nuclear power as an example of human technology.

I like this idea very much, but we need to develop faster transportation to Mars and back before this is feasible.

And, of course, the cost really needs to come down.

Then you have the health risks, although faster trips to Mars and back would reduce that problem somewhat.  We need to start moving on getting some artificial gravity on a trip of that distance.

Perhaps I failed to make the connection for you.  A nuclear power plant is not "easy" due to high technolody in a similar way as space travel will never be "easy" just because we happen to have high technology.

Getting off Earth is much too expensive right now.  Sending a team of humans to Mars is out of the question based on cost, not to mention the health concerns.

I don't think so.  It's not helpful to be overly simplistic.  Space is a hostile environment.

Has high technology made nuclear power plants easy?

1.  No need to leap into feeling insulted.  After all, it was you who introduced "voodoo economics. 

2.  I'm a Christian who would like to see us have an actual manned space program, instead of the joke we have now.  I've even volunteered to go to Mars myself, if NASA could get me there safely.  That's how curious I am to explore Mars.

3.  That depends, my young friend.  Have you taken a look at the national debt lately?!  Wealth is not measured by how many electronic toys you have.  We are so broke we cannot afford to send a manned exploration to Mars. 

4.  Sadly, many in America don't want to give God a place in our country or in their own lives.  Since God created the whole universe I see no reason to leave Him out of a Mars discussion.  However, since you claim to be offended I will drop it in this thread.

Peace.