New diplomatic opportunities on Mars... (Snicker)
Posted on 02/25/2010 3:04:06 PM PST by presidio9
NASA chief Charles Bolden told senators Wednesday that sending astronauts to Mars is still the ultimate goal for U.S. human spaceflight, as he defended the agency's new space plan against criticism in a heated budget hearing.
"Mars is what I believe to be the ultimate destination for human exploration in our solar system," Bolden told the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee.
But NASA will likely not have the technology to send astronauts to Mars for at least the next 10 years, he said.
"There are too many capabilities that we don't have in our kit bag," Bolden said.
That's where the NASA's 2011 budget request comes in, Bolden said. It sets the stage for future manned spaceflights to the moon, asteroids and Mars, by focusing on the technologies needed to explore beyond low-Earth orbit faster, he added.
But Bolden's comments were met with criticism and, at times, open hostility from some committee members and experts because the new budget request effectively canceled NASA's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon.
Without a successor to the space shuttle, NASA will lose talented engineers from layoffs and attrition, which poses a threat to the United States' prowess in human spaceflight, former shuttle commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson told the committee as part of a later hearing with a panel of space experts.
"With the retirement of the space shuttle later this year, and if the administration's proposal is followed, the United States will no longer be a space-faring nation," said Gibson, who flew on five shuttle missions before retiring from spaceflight in 1996.
Next stop for NASA?
While Bolden said Mars is a goal,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Only the Postal Service has the technology needed to deliver the mail!
So can someone enlighten me...what is on Mars that warrants sending/risking a team of astronauts to do what a robot could probably do?
Will the air there *ever* be breathable for humanity? And what about all the salt underneath?
PS> Star Trek will still be entertaining after you metabolize that fact.
Mars,how quaint. Hell would be my choice
Ambassador Sheila Jackson Lee.
"Get your ass to Mars.....Get your ass to Mars....."
That was my first thought too. Very funny.
What, no pics of the 3-breasted woman? ROFL
True story:
I did a Google search for this, saw that you had posted it to a thread last year, and decided that you had the rights to it, and would eventually post here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2199166/posts?page=20#20
More times than not when I search for a pic and it pulls it, it’s from an FR page.
He can go to any 7-11 where he can purchase a Mars for about 75 cents.
Obummer created 2 million jobs for aliens on Mars and saved 2 million more on U r anus
By setting an as yet technically undoable goal (no gloves which will work on Mars for one) at some distant date, Bolden’s crocodile tears for the 30,000 people he'll be firing rings hollow and shallow.
LLS
Willing to risk a little coin on that prediction?
I am 45 years old. If I live for the average number of years common to Americans of the 1965 birth cohort (70.0 years), I will can expect to live until 2045 -- 35 years hence.
I'm willing to bet that long before 2045, some bright boy or girl will discover a means of reactionless space propulsion; in other words, they will invent a gadget that can transform generated energy into linear motion directly, enabling a vehicle equipped with the drive to accelerate itself in one direction without throwing mass out in the opposite direction. This gadget, which I will call the "space drive" for short, will make all forms of rocket engine obsolete and put space travel within the grasp of the average person. Using the space drive, private parties such as families, churches, corporations, or political groups will be able to move into space and between the planets at will. Such groups will buy or build spacecraft capable of sustaining life and carrying cargo, fire up the space drive, and set sail upon the sea of space in the same manner as the Mayflower colonists set sail upon the Atlantic Ocean. The spread of the human race across the solar system will follow shortly thereafter.
This is no pipe dream. A considerable amount of research into reactionless propulsion is already underway, some of it with promising results. Given 35 years of technological progress, I'm willing to bet that I will live to see human beings on the surface of Mars.
In fact, I'll go you one better. I hereby wager $100 in U.S. currency (or its 2045 equivalent) that I myself will walk upon the surface of Mars by A.D. 2045. If I die prior to midnight UCT 1 January 2046, you win. If I visit Mars after midnight UCT 1 January 2046, you win. Otherwise, you will tender to me one hundred U.S. dollars in 2045 cash upon my arrival at the Red Planet. I'll rely on the Internet to preserve the terms of our wager until then.
Betting against the human spirit is a losing proposition. Just let me know if you want in.
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