New Mars Forums

Of course not Cindy, I welcome everyone's post. I like your posts, BTW.

I am surprised about the level of international users, I still don't how you figured this out. My Members button still doesn't work ?!

Yeah, I know it's a free world and you can't force anyone to join. It's just not enough promotion, although this forum has the largest number of users I know - I give credit to the organizers. My idea is I found some posts with no answers or with no support from people who have similar ideas to the the uses on this forum who just happen to use wrong forums or search engines only in their own language. I join in the discussion and give them links to here. Sometimes a plain advertizing post would work. Having to post in a foreign language is only offputting for some but not all.

The knowledge of English is good around the world, so if people post here, they will most probably do it in English. (You can stay monolingual, if you wish, Cindy).

I want to come up with a post message - invitation to this forum - a short statement, which I want to translate into other languages, or just post in English where appropriate and occasionally post on some forums/discussions I know to see if it works.

I have a cosmopolitan mind too - probably because I travelled a lot and tried to learn too many languages. I like that about Australia, which is similar to the US in many ways. Multiculturalism is a big thing here, it's gone worse, though with the current government.

I would consider this, dicktice but not because of your obsession with Mt. Kilaminjaro, but if there were enough scope and it would be good for my career. Besides, I don't think Tanzanians could contribute significantly to the space exploration and there are public discussions in Tanzania about flying to Mars but I would welcome a Tanzanian if he wanted to talk.

I wonder if there are many non-English active users (people from on-English speaking countries) on this forum and what they think about the site.

Also, pasting here Japanese word for Mars ???? (Kasei) to see how it is displayed. The same Chinese characters are pronounced Huoxing (Huohsing) (depending on what transliteration you use). Of course it means "Fire Star". I want to convert this to an image and make it my Avatar.

To Stu. Not sure if she was drunk but the soil look cohesive again as in Gusev crater. Is there any moisture in the soil? or the dust particles just freeze together? Thanks for the link.

You're right Aetius. It's only steep on the esarpment and in the caldera. You could drive a car to the edge of the caldera easily - 200 km. Even so, there will be a lot of enthusiasts to walk to the top - it's more walking than climbing. Although Olympus Mons is tall, it covers a very large area.

Shaun, do you mean, they will be against using nuclear power  on outer planets or because of the risk of explosion during the launch? If the first, why would they care what happens billions of miles away from Earth?

If the second, then it's more difficult. Need to make sure the nuclear material doesn't explode on Earth even if the explorer does.

Both sides would look much better to me flooded, overgrown with green vegetation or with some human activity. :laugh: Not a scientist, sorry, just want to get there sooner.

I voted for Gusev crater - looks like central Australia to me and you could get better panorama than from the crater where Opportunity landed.

NASA retiree:

[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … ce_mars_dc]An opinion of a NASA veteran, read more.

Hi,

Although, the news was marked as "official", there was nothing in offical Russian news regarding the matter, nothing in the major newspapers. Although, I found a Russian reprint of the news. The title was "Russian WILL be on Mars before Americans" (WILL wasn't highlighted) but the article said about looking for sponsorship. So it's not WILL but only MIGHT BE, IF. I sent my sarcastic comment to them.

Everybody knows that Russian economy is not as good as that of the USSR, Vir Stellae, you don't have to enlighten us on this. However, a lot of technology, hardware, years of experience is there, and importantly, the spirit is there.

I saw models of interpalnetary spacecrafts on Russian TV and an interview with scientists about their plans to go to Mars, but nothing was approved or sponsored.

I asked professor Lev Mukhin, a prominent scientist in the Russian Academy of Sciences a question about the participation of Russia in exploration of planets and this is waht he answered (it's a quick translation, hopefully it makes sense):

ecrasez_l_infame:

I agree with that, Cindy.

I was searching on Russian web sites. On one of the sites they were talking about looking for sponsors:

Note: The sites below are in Russian

[http://www.gazeta.ru/2002/09/19/rossijskiema.shtml]Russian Marsonauts

More optimistic (August 2003): In another link they talk about plans building a Nuclear Power Station on Mars (?!) by a government company Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star - here it's the name of the company, not the spacecraft). They talk about mission to Mars as if it's already a known fact.

[http://www.membrana.ru/lenta/?2053]Nuclear Power Station Krasnaya Zvesda to supply power to the Red Planet

They say that nothing has been said about the exact timing of the flight of Zvezda (not "Krasnaya Zvezda") but Leonid Gorshkov said they were getting ready for it.

I can't give the full translation now, guys. Posting this from work. Promise to do some more search tonight and if I find something interesting, I'll post here.

They also mention a 500-day experiment to lock 6 cosmonauts in preparation for the flight to Mars. That's crazy! I would never do that. Sitting locked and knowing you are not going anywhere, you definitely go nuts!

That's right Bill,

The idea of no return, without any suicides is more appealing to me and it would probably work too. I mean if people are sent to Mars and provided with all things necessary to survive for a long period (10-30 years) - just the basics with a hope that supplies would come some day, maybe with landers. There will be people willing to stay on Mars for good, ready to take the risk. They would be the pioneers, first colonizers.

Although I don't think it would less expensive than a return mission, it would be good for future missions. I'd prefer the colonizers learned to grow their own food on Mars, at least plant food (at the beginning). I bet there would be a few hundred volunteers - vegetarians or someone ready to become ones. There could be issues with keeping orders on such a colony. It's something the first colonizers would need to face and it would be up to them, not to anyone on Earth.

With the time missions will get cheaper.

Just FYI, there was a serious plan in the USSR to send people to Mars one way. Some cosmonauts were trained for this and I saw an interview with one of them. He was very upset when the plan was canceled because of its inhumanity.

I agree that this woud be draconian and not necessary at all.

If we compare the human progress in the previous centuries we mad a big leap in the last century. We get impatient, because we want Mars and we want it now. I want to see people on Mars and terraformation started in my lifetime but objectively, even if it happens in 100 years, it's just a moment in history...