New Mars Forums

It doesn't have to cost a trillion dollars, but if its done the way NASA traditionally does such missions the costs will inflate to Epic proportions.
I am not expecting reform its ways at NASA anytime soon.

Take the ISS for example. It started of with a projected cost of $8 Billion...which went to $35 Billion......$100 Billion.... and so on and so forth.

The same goes goes for James Webb Telescope and the Mars Science Laboratory. The SLS/Orion is already projected to have out of control costs.

Its wishful thinking to believe that these missions will cost what the initial minimum projection says, especially with something as complex as a manned mission to mars.

Bottom line is, NASA has to get its costs way down so that these mission can fit within its normal budget. The conditions that created Apollo are unlikely to happen again. It would be nice if they did but I would not count on it.

Ultimately, I think developments in re-usability and using available manufacturing plant are going to be needed to bring costs under control.

wait, isn't this thread about Iran and space?

On that note:

Iran has done a bunch of very impressive stuff developing its own nuclear power aswell as satellite and missile lauching capabilities.

Most of this is to improve military and defence capabilities and doesn't really apply to space exploration atm.. I could see them getting into the commericial launch market at some point with their technology. In a few decades, they could play a role in space exploration. Nearly all other space exploration programs started of as millitary ventures. Iran could co-operate with other nations or entities in space, providing lauch technology etc etc.

I don't really approve of Iran's goverment or the human rights record, but that doesn't mean I think they should be isolated or threatened. Its slightly hyprocritical of the West considering their dealings with Saudi Arabia, an equally aweful regime.

I think we can have more of a positive influence on Iran and its public through openess and economic co-operation. Threats will just cause the country to become insular and rally behind its leadership. We should be heavily supporting pro-democracy groups in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt..

Oh stop crying about it. Thats not what 'happened'. Terraformer said what if one single state in the union had to pay all the taxes.

The taxation system is designed around your ability to pay. If you're are very loaded, paying a lot of tax won't hurt you as much as if you are a relatively poor person. Even when you are poor. you're still have to pay taxes which are probably crushing you into the ground whereas a relatively rich person is doing just fine.

Lets remember that all the wealth of the "less than 5%" didn't just come from space

why not?

Maybe, but we don't have cheap access to space and won't have for a long time. Even the most promising future technologies will still make access to space very very expensive. Anything on Earth is always going to be cheaper for a long long time. The Earth still has has a lot of materials that are much cheaper to access than anything in space.

In short, Its not a solution to Earth's problems for next few decades.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue manned space flight and viable colonies!

The best way to support such colonies would be to limit the amount of materials that need to come from Earth's gravity well. We achieve that by Investing in establishing space based infrastructure and industry on the Moon, NEO's, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Titan, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Io etc etc

This will eventually pay off big time.

If Burkhard Heim's 'theory of everything' is correct, we could slipping through space fairly quickly!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heim_theory

Apparently, We could get to Mars in three hours, and travel 11 lightyears in 80 days!!!

what is china going to do with it? they can't really attack the US, they would be h-bombed to shit if they did.

what they don't get from the US/Russia/Europe to develop space technology, they will inevitably develop themselves. Unlike the cold war countries, China has the benefit of all the advances since to help it catch up. The probe they sent to the moon was pretty sophisticated compared to what US/Russia were doing 40 years ago.

Even if there is to be no transfer of sensitive technology, cooperation could still take place.

to ensure humanities survival, we need a stable, balanced an highly educated population. If we allow the populous to explode every natural resource will be consumed and the effects on planet will be pretty horrendous. There is no lack of brilliant and intelligent people on the planet to make great breakthroughs and innovation. There is a lack of support for these people and for pushing through their brilliance. Corporations don't really do it  because they're only concerned with what's immediately profitable. they don't like taking risks.

I don't think as many women are all that enchanted about being house-slaves either.

Billions have been spent on fusion - the most brilliant minds have worked on it. This is just an inherently complicated engineering problem. its very very difficult, much more than fission.

After Apollo, somebody had to pay the bills.(also after vietnam) A mission to mars is really complicated and expensive. maybe had the shuttle been avoided and saturn V continued in some capacity we would be there sooner, but thats history now...