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well lessee, so far i`ve heard 30 bil, 50 bil, & now, ca ching 10 bil.
it`s doubtful there is any hurry to get to mars.
they may seem unnecessary, but if there are folks wanting to got the moon they would be a jumping off point, as some believe lunar trips require more deltav. & besides we need a base for spacejunk research & radiation experiments which can`t be done in leo bcuz it`s below the van allen belt. it`s trying to kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone.
in order for us to really develop space, we should concentrate on building another station. we will need fueling depots, etc.. preferably have one in geo & an Lpoint. that way missions could go to either moon or mars. in the meantime radiation experiments could be conducted more efficiently out there.
i understand geojunk is slower & hopefully easier to find than leojunk.
This is why we need a manned geostationary orbital space station. as far as used parts being maybe defective, "we" may eventually build an orbital & or lunar smelter, among other things. any defective materials could be melted down. this is the argument i use often for moon returns. folks seem to think we need a "museum" on the moon,that`s a fine sentiment, but there is defective equipment there not suitable for a museum. if as almost everyone nowadays wants mars & completely bypass the moon, moon junk should belong to the first salvage consortium to get at it. i noticed zubrin uses the selfsame notion w/ mars equipment. "we" need to catalogue all usable spacejunk if possible. we may be surprised as to how much readily usable/smeltable equipment /materials are available beyond the "well". i`m glad to see someone finally adressing this issue. nowadays many seem to be wanting to leapfrog in space, not realizing there are issues & projects closer to "home". time & again i`ve heard the argument against moon returns (we can`t build a marscraft from moon materials) this doesn`t take into account moonjunk. after all, many speak of moonmining. there are other scenarios besides marsdirect, just think of how much less deltav would be needed from lunorbit,lunarface, Lpoint, GEO, nearth bodies, etc.. besides deltav, badradtime also is less on such missions.
why would anyone want to inflict 1g on a child born on mars? i doubt mar`s children would want to go to earth, they would be entirely different from us. they would be twice as strong in 1/6 g however.
well that would certainly make me wanna packup & head on to ceres or europa or titan,or luna, etc..
most every1 is familiar w/ seti@home screensaver? why not the same for space debris? if more people were invovled in tracking debris more attention would be brought to the problem. atm many don`t acknowledge it`s a problem. that`s the 1st hurdle: public awareness &/or acknowledgement. as for doing it, the step for that would be a human mission to geosynch orbit. i understand that space debris in that vicinity is slower moving than leo. next step is building a station there.this would be less costly than many other proposals. of course there`s the problem of radiation shielding, etc., but aren`t these problems inherent in any mission past van allen belt? i`m aware that this board is new mars & i knew eventually that would be pointed out. i recently was able to see zubrin`s show in person & i had recently read on another board that zubrin is actually for some moon exploration, to see all this mars enthusiasm 1 wouldn`t think so. so if there is actually a teensy weensy bit of moon support there is hope. we all have our specialties & i`m sure there are a great many wonderful plans for mars, i have a few of my own. but as i get older i realize that my personal chances for mars are getting slimmer. imho 1 of the most important goals in space is # of people. the more people we have in space at any given time the greater our chances of success. at this time by concentrating on nearer earth objectives we could achieve more than by leapfrogging. the moon just happens to have advantages, there are other goals besides the moon too. for instance, we need better suits all around. a great many side effects would be derived from mars direct. we must realize that redundancy is an important factor in many endeavors if there is a total failure in the 1st mission, we need an alternative.
if we want to have a stable govt in space (moon,mars,etc.) we need to have the UN involved. situations like this is exactly why the UN was formed.
if i was a "peacekeeper" i`d be armed too. what would be the point in suicide? actually the un peacekeeping force should be expanded.
when i was younger & perhaps a bit naive i believed in the pro mars movement. as i`ve aged & noticed much inactivity in human spaceflight. i`ve come to realize that more attention should be focused on more realistic efforts than human mars mission at this point in our present development. there are many alternatives to mars direct. mars flyby, moon return, asteroid missions, moon flyby, phobos mission, moon-venus slingshot mars mission, cats, L-point mission, geosynch mission, tether experiments, space debris cleanup to name a few.
there are a great many interested in such. it seems that existing organizations aren`t moving fast enough in certain areas. nor are they adressing important issues. these imho could only be brought about thru an international body. perhaps the UN outer space affairs could be expanded.
that would certainly be be good reason to moon wouldn`t it?
a great many people are interested in the moon.