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In a recent article titled "Terraformation" Tim Volkert made this comment-
Quote:
The plans for a human expedition to Mars are many and insufficiently supported for any one to take the forefront and be accepted by the space community. The author sees a hard time for humanity as a whole to even get to Mars, let alone terraform it
Others also mentioned in another thread that there are over 7000 plans for Mars missions/bases they have come across over the years. Whether it is the NASA 90 Day report from 1990 or Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct, the plans are all out there. I would have to agree with Tim here. ALL of these plans are insufficiently supported so would it be a logical conclusion to say that OTHER issues are the real barrier to a human mission to Mars?
What could those issues be and what can be done about them? From my own observations it seems that one major problem is the gloryhound factor. Many engineers, scientists, politicians and industrialists want the kudos for making a Mars mission happen and the evidence for that lies in the thousands of plans and countless debates raging all over the world for many decades now. A "What's in it for me?" attitude reigns supreme in many of these circles too.
But maybe the missing factor is the support of the general public. Instead of tapping into public interest and expanding upon it, all of the above parties continue to fight on oblivious to the fact that they don't and may never have real public support for their plans. With the public on board a private or government based Mars mission will happen in the quickest possible time. But are there other issues we are not seeing here? I believe that there has been a massive failure by the space community all over the world in making the case for Mars to the general public. When we crouch it in scientific and technical terms and we rave on about the quest to find evidence for "Life" we ignore the fact that most people just don't care about such things.
The space community don't really mix very well with non-spacers. You won't find many space groups involved in trying to solve world hunger or cure cancer or any other earthly concern. Neither will you find them mixing very much with non space interested/focused companies and individuals. If the general public percieve that we are trying to take valuable dollars from more pressing earth bound problems that affect them (and they do), what are we doing to change that perception? Nothing. Just more aloof space talk from people they don't understand. If we want the world to be behind us, we must get behind them in a big way. Only then will they look seriously at our agendas and respect our reasonings for things like a Mars mission. The world is a big place. The space community is a small, deeply fractured community. The contrast could not be clearer. They are in the position of strength, we are in a position of weakness and laughable credibility (to them). We must approach them as a group wanting to work with them on their own concerns and in return we might start to see the public start to listen to our concerns.
Imagine a group of spacers that were prominently identified by their disaster relief efforts, their programs to help feed the hungry and their support for curing medical problems like cancer. You might think that such activities are a waste of valuable resources but is it really? If doing things like this gain us massive public attention and support won't our "valuable resources" expand exponentially? My own theory is if something is not working, try something else. If grand Mars mission plans were enought to get us there, we would be there by now, but clearly such plans are not enough. Priorities must be addressed and we can either take the public's view of priorities seriously and by this gain their respect and support, or we can continue to ignore their concerns and continue to be a small, divided "go nowhere' community. I for one would like to know what your thoughts are on this and if we can find ways to move beyond the current stalemate.
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Nothing serious is really going to be done untill we decide what were going to do with space once we get there. What role is it going to play in our future?
"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane
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The missing factor is money because there is no return on the enormous investment.
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Space in general, and Mars in particular plays the role of frontier for me. A place to start again. Maybe if the general public saw it as a viable place to inhabit, not just a far away slightly interesting source of odd science news, they'd be interested in supporting exploration and beyond.
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Ready to live on Mars?
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