NASA to make "major" Mars announcement tomorrow

Tefal said:
its so they can get the place built up.

go there build, recive suplies,build more, recive new people, grow old and either die or hope before then they develop a return module.
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I was listening to a science podcast about this, iirc Brain Cox and they were saying the amount of medical care and teams of experts that are required to look after an astronaut that has been to the moon or the length of time we have been in space is huge. That if you went to Mars the amount your body would degenerate by the time you got there you could do nothing and wouldn't have the care to help you. So to me it all seems a bit pointless until we have artificial mavity :D

There's no need to set a base up on Mars when you might as well practice living on the moon.
 
Can't see it being about manned missions to Mars.

Much more likely they've found evidence of water or microbiology in some samples.
 
dannyjo22 said:
I was listening to a science podcast about this, iirc Brain Cox and they were saying the amount of medical care and teams of experts that are required to look after an astronaut that has been to the moon or the length of time we have been in space is huge. That if you went to Mars the amount your body would degenerate by the time you got there you could do nothing and wouldn't have the care to help you. So to me it all seems a bit pointless until we have artificial mavity :D

There's no need to set a base up on Mars when you might as well practice living on the moon.
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we have people living on the iss for over a year at a time now?

also spinning
 
Tefal said:
we have people living on the iss for over a year at a time now?

also spinning
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While I agree with what your saying I understand his point. As when the people from the ISS return to earth they have a group of people that will be able to carry them out of the return pod. When they get to Mar they will have no one to help them. Normally none of them walk about for the first few days/weeks.

Maybe they will use some type of exoskeleton space suits to help them move around. Or one hell of a space fitness work out to keep them fit enough while they travel.

That being said Mar mavity is only about 1/3 compared to Earths so could be a good trade up there.
 
Tefal said:
we have people living on the iss for over a year at a time now?

also spinning
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They come back to earth where they have the best medical care. There's no medical care on Mars when they get there and if there was who looks after them when they get there ;)

I'm not in favour of a suicide run. I don't see it as a benefit to anyone.
 
doofer said:
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I feel like I'm missing the joke here. I can't even make out what that green item is. Can someone fill me in?
 
dannyjo22 said:
They come back to earth where they have the best medical care. There's no medical care on Mars when they get there and if there was who looks after them when they get there ;)

I'm not in favour of a suicide run. I don't see it as a benefit to anyone.
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mars is a lot smaller than earth, and its not like we cant experiment to find the best treatment protocals with astronauts doing iss runs.
 
Would it be possible to fly a drone on Mars? I realise the atmosphere is much thinner and you could never have real time control. But one with basic AI which could be set on a course, land and recharge it's solar cells would mean we could explore so much more, more quickly. I guess you might need a base station to communicate data back from.

Is it possible in the thin atmosphere?
 
MookJong said:
Would it be possible to fly a drone on Mars? I realise the atmosphere is much thinner and you could never have real time control. But one with basic AI which could be set on a course, land and recharge it's solar cells would mean we could explore so much more, more quickly. I guess you might need a base station to communicate data back from.

Is it possible in the thin atmosphere?
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i think it would have to be some kind of balloon based one i dont think props could keep it up.
 
MookJong said:
Would it be possible to fly a drone on Mars? I realise the atmosphere is much thinner and you could never have real time control. But one with basic AI which could be set on a course, land and recharge it's solar cells would mean we could explore so much more, more quickly. I guess you might need a base station to communicate data back from.

Is it possible in the thin atmosphere?
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It certainly is and Jet Propulsion Labs (which is part of NASA) is developing a 1kilo 1.1m wing tip to wing tip drone, to go on the next mars rover. However it hasn't been selected as a payload yet or any payloads for that matter.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4457

dannyjo22 said:
I was listening to a science podcast about this, iirc Brain Cox and they were saying the amount of medical care and teams of experts that are required to look after an astronaut that has been to the moon or the length of time we have been in space is huge. That if you went to Mars the amount your body would degenerate by the time you got there you could do nothing and wouldn't have the care to help you. So to me it all seems a bit pointless until we have artificial mavity :D

There's no need to set a base up on Mars when you might as well practice living on the moon.
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I would be surprised if he actually said that, due to ISS they have massively reduced muscle and bone loss through special diet and exercise. Combined with mars only having 38% of the mavity. There is also no reason a mars ship can't be spun up to provide mavity.

dannyjo22 said:
I don't see the point of the suicide missions they keep going on about. Get there and die, what an achievement.
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NASA isn't planning such a mission, they are planning a boots and flag mission like the moon landings. Mission you are talking about is Mars One, which has nothing to do with NASA.
And technically NASA is planning any manned mars missions, they have no directive from congress, no funding for it and no missions on the book. It's like we'll see the Space Launch System fly 2 times then scrapped, due to cost.

SpaceX is the most likely to get to mars at the moment, all though details are sketchy, but likely the first people there, wont be able to return for a fair few years, until' infrastructure is set up. They where going to releases more details about there Mars Colonial Transporter, by the end of the year, abut with the Falcon F9 failure that might be delayed.
 
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I don't get the "suicide" mission thing. We used to go on "suicide" missions all the time in our ancestry when we were explorers. That's how we found new land, new civilisations, new cultures, fruits, vegetables, chocolate!!

Admittedly I do not think we have the tech yet to colonise Mars or another planet, but it is something we should aspire to do.

That said we should aim to sort out our problems on Earth and try and be a unified planet first... perhaps a planet colonisation programme may bring people together?
 
We basically have the technology, it just needs working out and building. The principles are there in other systems.

If we waited to solve earths issues first we would never achieve anything.
And totally agree calling it a suicide mission is silly. It's not suicide, it's choosing life and then death somewhere else.
 
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