Park shuttle, shift focus to Mars landing, experts tell NASA

Orlando Sentinel ^ | Oct 17 2003 | Gwyneth K. Shaw

[Charlotte Corday]

"The problem is not human spaceflight; the problem is this kind of human spaceflight,"

YES! YES! YES!

[Consort]

And stop collecting rocks. Flash Gordon didn't collect rocks.

[Charlotte Corday]

" Flash Gordon didn't collect rocks."

Good point, now that we're sharing space with Ming the Merciless!

[smith288]

NASAs goal appears to be one of no advancement. Privatize this crap and get the govt to protect us from enemies.

[RoughDobermann]

NASA plans to keep flying the shuttle, perhaps until 2020 or even longer

Let's see. At the current rate of catastrophic shuttle accidents, there won't be any shuttles left after 2012...

[finnman69]

LETS MINE THE CRAP OUT OF OUTER SPACE

[hadaclueonce]

hey this way they can spend two years in space before they become a charcoal bricket.

[Consort]

[mikegi]

What is the rationale for sending men to Mars? Just to scrawl "Kilroy was here" on a rock? Should we go to maintain ascendancy over the Chinese who are, apparently, going to make a moonshot sometime in the next few years?

[KarlInOhio]

hey this way they can spend two years in space before they become a charcoal bricket.

"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on Mars and returning him safely to near earth orbit."

[r9etb]

What is the rationale for sending men to Mars?

That is, indeed, the question. And the answer is that there's really no point, except perhaps to prove that we can send people a looong way from Earth and bring them back.

But we already know we could do it -- the technical details aren't difficult, just expensive -- and at this point there's nothing else about Mars that justifies sending people to do what robots can do in their place.

[jpl]

What is the rationale for sending men to Mars?

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Earth isn't going to exist forever. Sooner or later, a really big asteroid is going to wander into the neighborhood and threaten to wipe out mankind, if we haven't done it to ourselves already. Either we begin the slow, arduous process of looking outward, or we doom ourselves to eventual extinction.

[mvpel]

The reason for sending people to Mars is that Mars has everything needed to establish another branch of human civilization.

[Consort]

 Flag of Mars

[r9etb]

Mars has everything needed to establish another branch of human civilization.

Except air, water, arable land, survivable temperatures, and protection from radiation.

[been_lurking]

or we doom ourselves to eventual extinction.

Historically, 99.99% of all living things have become extinct. I don't think humans will have any better success.

[RoughDobermann]

Should we go to maintain ascendancy over the Chinese who are, apparently, going to make a moonshot sometime in the next few years?

Do the Chinese have a booster in the works that will be able to achieve escape velocity?

[jpl]

Historically, 99.99% of all living things have become extinct. I don't think humans will have any better success.

You may well be right, but we're by far the most intelligent, self-aware and adaptable species that's sprouted up on the rock to date.

[mikegi]

Do the Chinese have a booster in the works that will be able to achieve escape velocity?

I don't know but there were several news articles earlier this year saying that China has unmanned missions to the moon planned for 2005 followed by a manned mission sometime around 2010.

[mikegi]

of landing a man on Mars and returning him safely to near earth orbit

Ouch!