[RightWhale]

Heavy day for American corporate business. Maybe a little positive news will help.

[The_Victor]

While any effort is appreciated, that is perhaps 10 4'x8' 1/4"thk sheets. That wouldn't even make a good sized habitation chamber.

Oh well.

[Consort]

Martian Flags....................

[Quilla]

If the ever get around to sending the station to Mars, someone ask the delivery guys to say 'hey' to John Carter for me.

[RedWhiteBlue]

In addition to aluminum products and components, Alcoa also markets consumer brands including Reynolds Wrap(R) aluminum foil, Alcoa(R) wheels, and Baco(R) household wraps.They left out tin-foil hats. Where whould we be without those?

[RightWhale]

Mars ping. Alcoa is a big part of the space program, a part we don't think about much. The ISS is mostly aluminum. The American modules would probably be Alcoa aluminum, assuming NASA buys American products. Would Alcoa want to participate in a Mars expedition and subsequent settlement? The Russian project would give the economy a big boost, and we ought to do it.

[Willie Green]

Alcoa has donated approximately 1,500 pounds of 6061-T6 aluminum sheet and treadplate along with engineering expertise to the Mars Society, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of Mars.

Alcoa is likely claiming top-dollar for donating surplus inventory to this non-profit organization as a tax write-off. No doubt Alcoa would love to sell aluminum to anybody going to Mars, whether the effort is publicly financed or private. It would be in the taxpayers' best interest to leave Mars exploration to the private sector. Resources should be directed more toward earth-based infrastructure such as mass-transit systems. Hundreds of millions more people will benefit from riding high-speed rail or Maglev than will ever have the opportunity to ride on a Mars shuttle.