"No, we won't go to the Moon; we will visit Mars instead," says Obama

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of NASA. Their continuing mission: to explore strange new things, to seek out new life, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

:/
 
malc30 said:
I might go there myself in me Polow just for the Lols.
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If you drive really carefully, the fuel will cost about £18,600 to get you there. But this doesn't include accelerating the Dobo to 25,000mph to get away from earth, or accelerating to 2,250mph to catch the moon in it's orbit. Better be good cheese. :D
 
There is no point in sending men to Mars, robots can achieve just as much, if not more. The only reason to do it is to say that we have done it.

Plus, you have to take into account the large dose rates that the atronaughts would recieve on their journey there and back and on spacewalks etc. It's too much.

(my 800th post!).
 
physichull said:
There is no point in sending men to Mars, robots can achieve just as much, if not more. The only reason to do it is to say that we have done it.
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Is that not a good enough reason? Why bother sending the robots, there's nothing up there that's going to help up out down here. The only way NASA's space exploration helps the rest of the world is with the technological advancements made to get stuff - including people - into space. So carry on with the flag planting.

Plus, you have to take into account the large dose rates that the atronaughts would recieve on their journey there and back and on spacewalks etc. It's too much.
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Those poor astronauts, tell you what let me go instead, I'm perfectly happy risking the radiation to go to Mars.
 
And if you know anyone that works for NASA - you will know how serious the cutbacks and layoffs have been over the last 5 years :rolleyes:

Simply because space exploration just isn't hip at the moment - and there's a million other things that need sorted in the US now.

(And the fact that the American people in general have actually advanced about 20 years and realised Health care, Class Issues, Immigration, National Debt, Military Expenditure, Social problems, Crime and Education are on top of the agenda now)

I would like to think there is still the same enthuiasm for space exploration in the US as there was 30 or 40 years ago - but to be honest....... that's absolute rubbish in the current economic climate. And your average American just wants a decent life on earth with a safe family environment and no $1500 a month medical cover.

Unless America can magic some $ out of some hole somewhere - they are going nowhere for a very long time - The people just wouldn't allow this needless expenditure - and that has been proven by the reductions in the NASA Gov. budget over the last few years (and the reductions in headcount and programs)

To get to Mars - NASA needs serious/serious money - a serious Invention to give us super fast space travel - and a serious amount of brainpower to get us there and back alive by 2030 - just 20 years away. That's just not going to happen anytime soon - FACT. Look at how far we have advanced since 1990 - virtually nowhere.

China is your best bet ;)
 
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I don't really mind who gets there first or whether it's the moon, mars, or somewhere else - so long as they share the fruits of getting there with the rest of us. This is one case where the journey is far more important than the destination.
 
BigglesPiP said:
Those poor astronauts, tell you what let me go instead, I'm perfectly happy risking the radiation to go to Mars.
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well unless we get some new kind of shielding it's either going to be an incredibly heavy, expensive and cramped space ship or those poor astronauts aren't coming back.
 
Berserker said:
I don't really mind who gets there first or whether it's the moon, mars, or somewhere else - so long as they share the fruits of getting there with the rest of us. This is one case where the journey is far more important than the destination.
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Why should a country pour tens of billions into research and have to give it away?
 
Happy and Sad about that, the moon needs to be revisited, and explored to a greater degree, however, mars is the obvious next thing...tough call really.
 
Nickg said:
being smart and not even trying does count as failing imo.
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?

it would be stupid for us to even try - as we do not have the resources to throw at it, nor the appetite to do it.
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If benefits were scrapped we could probably fund a space station in alpha centuri.

Seriously though i'm not suggesting that we try to go to mars, but actually do something that the country can be proud of.

It's better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit anyway.
 
Hamzter said:
Hmm, nice idea, I'd be suprised if that was practical though, beaming gigawatts of power from the moon to earth sounds like a recipe for disaster! I remember playing Sim City all those years ago, you could build powerplants that used orbiting solar panels and power was beamed down from them into big collectors, the damn things kept malfunctioning though and carving a hole in my city!
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Ah yes, the well known source of scientific fact - Sim City. I agree though, it would need a heck of a lot of planning and testing but i saw a program about it a couple of months back and they said they could beam it back with about 80% efficiency. Which is pretty good really.
 
Tefal said:
Why should a country pour tens of billions into research and have to give it away?
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Who said anything about giving anything away? I said share - as in not keep to oneself to the exclusion of all others - much as has happened with many inventions destined for NASA over the years.
 
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Energize said:
?

If benefits were scrapped we could probably fund a space station in alpha centauri.
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I really like this

I think that is the best political stance any of the parties could take.

The only problem would be that they would need unemployed people to have no vote.


Also I think the UK's future is space.....we have no chance of being any sort of world power (like we were) on Earth but were we to develop our satellite / space industry then we have a chance. Great Britain was built on the fact we were an island; Earth will become a mediocre island very soon.


Right, I'm off to sober up

seeya later
 
Well U.S.A is not the country it used to be.

The ideal solution would be a global space organisation. Sending people to Mars, to either orbit the planet or land and performing tasks that any robot can do today will just strengthen the opinion that NASA spends money for nothing.

Setting a base on the moon would be our next goal. It sounds hard but just think of the science than can be performed there and the technologies that we will develop in order to make this dream a reality.

In addition setting goals for the distant future as producing energy and mining the moon would be great. As previously said, creating solar panels on the moon would be nice since it has no atmosphere, thus power generation there will be greater and you can beam it down to earth in a laser.

Our current economical model doesn't allow this though. Governments spend their money on stupid things like the 1.2B dollar bomber B2 that is used to bomb people living in caves rather than spending that money for research or space exploration that will make our life better and give young people think big.
 
Hamzter said:
The LHC IS working, and what does that have to do with space travel?
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It if it was working there woudn't need to be all the delays and "testing". It only reached 7Tev 17 days ago, years late and not even a continuous operation.

The LHC has everything to do with space travel. Without a greater understanding of particle physics how can we hope to achieve nuclear fusion? Without fusion and fusion rockets, reaching Mars IS fantasy.
 
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