Mars . . . when? why? how?

What's that?

(I'm Brazilian; and certainly would like to know who has been sabotaging me this whole time )

~SDC~

I can add a few things:

-China does plan on eventually putting a human on Mars... but they also planned on stopping the Mongol hordes. (great wall - really impressive - didn't work)

-The economic interest in space exploration is dependent on the crossing of two factors: 1. expectations for advancing technologies (how quickly will the cost go down?) 2. the perceived exploitability of extraterrestrial resources (how much can I sell this stuff for?)

-I'd be interested in a theme park, especially if it was on Mars. What would that cost me? My life's savings? No one currently needs to inherit my wealth so it’d be worth it.

Oh yes...the Beagle is due to land a week before the Spirit, thus trumping the American effort. Then, the Beagle disappears...hmmm...I'm afraid this has the letters "C - I - A" written all over it. At this moment, the Beagle is a weather satellite positioned over Guatemala, stripped of its memories....

Sadly, the space program was derailed by the profit motive since the Moon landings...the shuttle kept it alive (because you can charge people to place their satellites in orbit) and I await the ISS (International Space Station) with excitement. Read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy for a great possible future view!

great books

~SDC~

A plan exists but policy-makers have not yet indicated that they will follow through on it or not.



It's just prestige and politics with a dash of romanticism. It's certainly not knowledge. If NASA were serious about science, it would dump the manned space program entirely and focus on robotic exploration of space. Far cheaper and far more effective.

The current manned space program spends most of its money keeping itself limping along, replacing old equipment and such, and not learning anything.

I think that the only way man will ever get to Mars is if China sends a man to the Moon. They fully intend to do so. If they try, the U.S. will start up their manned rocket program again. After all, the USA is still paranoid about communism. They'll waste a lot of money sending another man to the moon (OK, or woman, in fact, most likely a woman for the PR of no one else has done it before).

Sending men to the moon is what kept us from going to Mars a decade or two ago. So much glamor was wasted on the Moon landing that no one realized there could be another goal. After Apollo 16 (not a typo), we were set back about 50 years from a Mars landing.

If we go to the Moon again, NASA will play their cards better and push for the real prize--Mars. I am American, but bias or no, if the USA doesn't go to Mars, no one will.

All of that said, I completely agree with vincible on the dumping manned space flight so we can actually start studying space. Well, on second thought, I don't completely agree. The romantic in me would love to see men land on another planet.

I like the way you think! Someone remind me to go on a trip to Mars when I'm old and senile.

EEC = European Econimic Community . . . hehe sry bout that.

Interesting posts . . .

Mmm . . . sending robots hey, mmm seems a more economically viable and less risky course of action to me too. Unless of course some other alien race thought it was pollution and were somehow offended by our space junk and like came to our planet and anihilated us all for littering . . . wouldn't that be ironic (sigh).

Ok how long is the round trip to Mars with our latest technology? 6 months either way? I haven't got a clue . . . what form of propulsion are we at. I read something a while back about theorectical hype-drive using a huge canopy that collected some kind of solar dust particles . . . or at least something emmited by the sun, my memory fails me . . .

Heya, I always wanted to ask this question of the world . . . How come there are no Current day Hue Hefners (Hmm or is that Howard Hughes I always get the two confussed)? You know crazy/eccentric billionar types who are happy to spend waddes of thier own money on space travel, aviation etc etc . . .

Why doesn't Billie Gates lauch himself into space . . . godness knows he has the cash to do it solo . . . ?


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Sorry, it was a stupid question. I just got used to EU now. (I live here and haven't used EEC/CEE (french version) in some time now .



Because there would be so many bugs in the system he wouldn't get back down here.

Wait!

Let's send him up there

~SDC~

LOL . . . thanks, its been a long day I needed that . . hehe.

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The pleasure is mine Ginata.
My day is just starting, and I needed that too to get to the end of it!



We must be at opposite sides on the globe!

~SDC~

The trip to Mars would be about 18 months each way. It would be a long journey. That doesn't even include the time they spend on Mars. So you're talking funding a program that will last three years.

Nastavnik, what would be so bad about Bill Gates not being able to come back?

Ginata asked why he wouldn't launch himself, to what I gave my opinion. I suggested we send him up. I f we use his systems & software, we shouldn't hear from him in a long time!

~SDC~

Off of the off-topic for a moment: I have been trying to figure out how to quote--can't do it. I know there is a thread buried somewhere that would answer this, but I'm lazy. Any one?

Back to serious mode for a moment:



(I quoted you just to show off )

You just select the text you want to quote, and then click the "Q" button, on the left, in the line just under the rank or empire of the person/post you want to quote

~SDC~

Off topic again . . . if that doesn't work (my browser doesn't seem to like these forums) just cut and paste what you'd like to quote and add '[ quote] at the beguining and [/quote ]' at the end . . . without the 's and spaces.

Nastavnik . . . are you in Russia or some part of Eastern Europe? Ty nie moivish po polsku brachie?

Doh! I just quote myself . . . oppsie me fix it up

[Message Edited]

Here goes:



I hope that's not vulgar.

Yeah! I guess I have to use ginata's way. My browser doesn't do anything when I use the "Q"

Ginata,
I'm in France (but I am actually a brazilian). However my wife is Russian, thus my nickname
~SDC~

But my russian is limited to my nickname and a few other words, and my polish, well, I just know enough to think that what you wrote was in polish
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The position is open? Yes? Then it’s time for me to change my name to Howard Hugh Hefner! I’ll design a huge luxurious space ship, travel to Mars with augmented naked women (and by augmented I mean ), and then build a mansion where I can have awesome hedonistic parties. Everyone in the GalCiv community is invited!

Seriously though, as much of a romantic as Howard Hughes was, in his Spruce Goose project he had a world war to support his country’s motivation. He was also keeping an eye on potential profits. Right now the world’s interest in space exploration just isn’t high enough to overcome the tremendous costs involved... high enough to satisfy us stargazers that is.

i ja ne govorim ruski

To discover something new and unique, you need a human being. Just think where space exploration would be like without Captain Kirk!

Seriously, though, a robot can do only so many things and make so many decisions. Sometimes its just easier to do it yourself. It's like being tech support and trying to tell someone how to fix their computer over the phone.

Besides, only MANNED Rangers and Survey Ships can explore anomalies!

Bill
~SDC~
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You've gotta remember how long it take to get to Mars in the first place! Once there, what do you do? Plant a flag? Hehe. We can't currently find a way to produce oxygen in sufficient quantities to sustain someone on another planet yet anyway

Then again when we send robots there, we get kilometers and miles mixed up and smack into the planet. I wonder how a Martian would explain that on his/her/it's Insurance policy?! LOL

I'm all for space exploration, but what gets me is the cost of it all... 200 billion dollars was it for that comet exploration they're doing now with Stardust? It's Administration gone mad

No, just $165 million, which isn't all that much in terms of government spending.



It's true. But the problem is the cost of getting a human over there to Mars. If you want the human to live through it, you need life support systems, oxygen, water, food, light, heat. You need space to move around in. You need radiation shielding. You need entertainment to keep him from going insane. You need to limit accelerations to just a couple gees, which rules out some modes of propulsion and of landing. You need on-board gravity so that his bones don't lighten to the point where they can't function on a planet. You need triple redundancy on everything for safety. You need a way to take back off from Mars and return.

Suffice to say, it's MUCH more difficult to do something with a human than with a sturdy and expendable robot.

DarkPaladins going on the right lines, the main problem is taking or making enough food, air and water for the journey. Some clever chap recently came up with a way around this, a two stage mission, the first of which is unmanned and is essentially a factory that makes oxygen and water, the second is a manned mission which only needs half the supplies - the factory already on Mars will make the supplies for the return journey, which should knock about 40% of the payload. I think NASA currently has a team doing some kind of feasability analysis on this to see if it will work.

Actually it cost about $US 165 million. Very cheap as they used little rocket fuel to get to the comet.



It takes about 3-4 months for a rocket containing a probe or rover to get to Mars. However they believe it would take about 18 months to send a human mission to mars since you can't use excessive g-force on humans like you can on machines.

It looks like China is planning on practice missions to the Moon so they can prepare for Mars. Hopefully they succeed in their mission to Mars and exploration. If China lands a person on the Moon, kicks down the American flag, and then plants a large, over-sized Chinese flag, America will be forced to go to space. The space race is just heating up again.