Should Mars be Human Space Flight Objective?

spaceref.com ^ | 10/24/03

[KevinDavis]

My response would be yes humans should go to Mars.

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[Incorrigible]

[TopQuark]

And my respnse is that, yes, Carl Sagan should go to Mars.

[ambrose]

Hell yeah.

[Elliott Jackalope]

You want to go to Mars? No problem. Just convince the government that Mars is populated with billions of Martians who would work for two cents a week.

Within three years we will have an outpost there staffed with corporate executives searching every nook and cranny for the cheap labor.

[PJ-Comix]

There's nothing on Mars worth sending humans there for. It's just a bunch of moon rocks except the Martian rocks are colored red.

[GO65]

My response would be yes humans should go to Mars.

i'd like to see NASA spun off into a non-profit organization, free to solicit investments, contributions, and payments from private industry to further its activities. I don't see why the U.S. tax payer should be funding NASA's space exploration activities when the primary beneficiary is private industry.

[anobjectivist]

If there is a way to make humans entirely self-sufficient in a place like mars (through technology or otherwise), then by all means get a colony going.

However, I fail to see the importance of intermediate mars visits (with flights to mars and back) unless there is a massive reduction in the amount of energy it will take to get people there, or we establish a permanent base.

Otherwise, it will turn into another apollo run.

I'm more interested in a permanent moon base, however.

[ALASKA]

Yes, and/or California.

[Consort]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

We go to the Moon to learn to live and work off planet. We don't go all the way to Mars. It's too expensive, it's too far and the search for life is not a mission. If something is out there, we'll find it soon enough.

A mission is doing something constructive. Right now national security is a biggy. Science is not. So we need to tie science onto a national security role. If some of our comsats and/or defense satellites were taken out, that would be a disaster. With water-ice on the Moon, we have the capacity for rocket fuel and life support. With the ice near peaks in near constant sunlight we have solar power. The moon is close enough to use as a testing ground. It will be our stepping stone and from there we can go on to Mars. Saganism has nutered NASA. It's time to get back on track.

There is so much to learn on the Moon. We can study the surface to learn about periodic catastrophic events. You want to study life? It's all there. Our history is written on the Moon and it could portend our future. Astronomy! Gracious, can you imagine what a radio telescope, placed on the far side, shielded from Earth's noise, could discover? And in the process we will build an space infrastructure that will be reliable and cost effective.

[The Iguana]

Yes.

[corkoman]

[mrsmith]

"When Space Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) challenged the witnesses on whether they would agree to an exploration initiative if the funding came from U.S. university research programs, most declined to support it on those terms. "

LOL!
"No, NO, take the money from someone else!"

Oh my, that's too funny.

After we have a farm and fuel refinery on the Moon we can go to Mars.

[theDentist]

Jack, I'm with you. We should have ben aiming there the day after Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins safely touched down on terra firma. Let's do it!!! And long before the Chinese!

[Finny]

With China in the Space Game as well, the U.S. had BETTER be the first to set up a post on the moon. It would be pretty bad if, because of timidity and indifference, U.S. "leaders" opted out of doing anything on the moon, and China stepped up and said: "We'll take it!" How would you feel if your grandkids grew up in a world where the Moon belonged to the Imperialist, Communist Chinese?

Cool thread, Kevin Davis, and super post, Mrs. Cin!

[PatrickHenry]

Ping.

[King Prout]

permanent self-sufficient moonbase... with materials refinement and manufactory facilities, and shipyards.
there is no point going into space if the current effort is not a logical step towards a greater objective.