Spirit on Mars Rekindles Speculation White House Will Send Humans

space.com ^ | 8 Jan 04 | Leonard David

[RightWhale]

Total speculation, . . . or perhaps close to the decision loop. UAAV

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[Dominic Harr]

I think we should start a list of people who *need* to be sent to Mars . . .

[Uncle George]

I vote Hitlery be the first to land on Mars. This would keep the Martians away from earth.

[Ciexyz]

Send the slate of Democratic Presidential candidates, we won't miss 'em.

[Ingtar]

I hope they come up with a different landing system. (Pictures Neil Armstrong surrounded by airbags bouncing across the Martian landscape.)

[Professional Engineer]

By far the most persistent conjecture is that the Bush Administration has green-lighted a human return to the Moon as a stepping stone to planting footprints on the distant dunes of Mars.

Bread, milk ,eggs, Spacesuit for Spiderboy...

[from occupied ga]

Hitlary...

Nope, I nominate Shiela Jackson Lee as the first, since she thinks that people landed there already anyway. (besides you could save on oxygen since she's an arrogant pompous sack of hot air anyway.) In addition Hitlary actually has actually demonstrated the beginnings of a rudimentary sense of humor with her Ghandi joke. Lee is far too self-important and stupid to have such.

[KellyAdmirer]

I wish them luck meeting their four goals. There is just so much muddled thinking about this, as if simply landing on Mars will somehow do more for the US than landing on the Moon did - which is next to nothing except for some prestige that just caused the usual vapid "we're wasting our money" responses.

Don't even bother going and wasting the money if it is going to be another touristy lunar-style round-trip. Prepare a continuing presence or forget it and just build things up on the Moon first, as astronaut Foale suggests (though I find his "base-camp" analogy very strained, too). NASA has had way too much dispersal of effort, that's one of its problems, not its strengths.

As I said, good luck, the administration needs it on this one.

[Enterprise]

"Spirit on Mars Rekindles Speculation White House Will Send Humans"

Mars - the new GiTMO.

[RightWhale]

There is just so much muddled thinking about this,

For example today's White House press conf, where the spokesman answered a direct question: "what have been the benefits of the space program." He cut the reply to: "Lots of stuff."

[familyofman]

Well, if you can't do anything for un/underemployed citizens - might as well ship them to Mars.

[ken5050]

Seems to me the biggest problem is gonan be how to get away from the ISS and the multi-nation crapola...

[Rubasoo]

If we can't get any volunteers to go to Mars, can we send the illegal legal immigrants??

[RightWhale]

Pres Bush has surprised us several times already with the thoroughness of his analysis. We might not agree with his decisions, but he has a much wider view and sees more detail of the total picture than anybody. That he had this capability of vision was not obvious during his presidential campaign, but it is obvious now. He will see the space program in the total context of the American society. He will see deep and wide. Whether he will see far remains to be seen.

[ken5050]

well stated..no argument here..

[oceanview]

don't laugh, NASA may well be using a Mexican astronaut on a future mission.

[marron]

Space exploration will really take off when private people organize and invest in it for their private purposes. That will happen the day we get the first interesting core sample back from the Moon, or Mars, or the asteroid belt.

I would like to see an emphasis on getting those core samples robotically. That is planting the seed. Private companies will do the rest, and instead of having only one space program you will have dozens.

[Cincinatus]

For example today's White House press conf, where the spokesman answered a direct question: "what have been the benefits of the space program." He cut the reply to: "Lots of stuff."

Well, that's not only an incredibly vague question, it also reveals an astonishing ignorance. Even the most doltish reporter can surely recognize some "benefits" from the space program, such as weather satellites. This was not so much a question as a snotty remark -- "I defy you to justify the space program to me!"

No doubt the brainless reporter who asked this question would counter that he just wanted to explain the value of the program to his readers. In fact, most reporters are so lazy, they cannot be bothered to look up the most basic or elementary facts, even though such background research is a snap with the internet. Many of them are: a) lazy; and b) stupid, in that order.

[Dead Dog]

IIRC, the airbag system is a cheap, high risk, way of landing a functioning probe. It's not a "human rated" method. The G-level Pathfinder experienced was around 19 gs (again, IIRC).

Humans would have to be landed the old Apollo/Viking way. BTW, check out what Viking 1's landing site looked like. Freakin' Amazing it survived.

Chryse Plantia

Landing Humans on Mars will probably require real time hazard avoidance..like Apollo.