Posted on 05/09/2013 4:28:00 AM PDT by LibWhacker
The Apollo-era astronaut says NASA should be working manned Mars missions
The second man to set foot on the moon wants to see NASA send people further into space than he ever traveled. Buzz Aldrin trashed NASA's plan to bring an asteroid into lunar orbit in a speech, advocating for a Mars colony.
Aldrin, who recently published the book "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration," said at the Washington, D.C. Humans to Mars summit Wednesday that President Barack Obama's asteroid mining plan is merely a distraction.
"Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What's that have to do with space exploration?" he asked. "If we were moving outward from there and an asteroid is a good stopping point, then fine. But now it's turned into a whole planetary defense exercise at the cost of our outward exploration."
The Apollo-era astronaut, now 83, has devised a plan to "cycle" spacecraft to Mars, continually launching humans to the red planet to expand on its colony. Aldrin advocates using Phobos, a moon of Mars, as a sort of home base for landing on the planet.
"Going to Mars means permanence, we'd become a two planet species. In Mars, we've been given a wonderful set of moons … where we can send continuous numbers of people," he said. The trips would be one-way.
"Their ultimate destination will be six feet under Mars," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Guaranteed suicide.
Just like it was during Desert Storm. We saw a cultural mindset as well: “It was Allah’s will that your tank threw a track. Why would you fix it? Who are you to defy Allah’s will?”
Much the same as the Soviets; they couldn’t risk the lower enlisted using their initiative. The Muslims just took it a step further.
Now 0bama’s mission for NASA is to capture the Pie in the Sky.
Very astute comment.
And love the tagline.
While doubtless true, I don't see the logic in wasting more money just because a great deal is already wasted.
I guarantee 95% of the money would end up in the hands of labor unions and black activists and Democrat bundlers who own green energy space capsule factories.
You bring up a very cogent point. Our trust in government was higher in the '60 - '70s probably since there wasn't as intense an effort to level the scoreboard rather than leveling the playing field for all of the do nothings and societal parasites.
If you define the mission as “human presence” then of course humans are necessary. But for all other missions (knowledge, resource exploitation) humans are a needlessly expensive accessory.
What the hell is your problem?
You are incredibly rude and argumentative
Whereas your telling me my comment is uncalled for is the height of politeness. And argumentative? This is a forum for discussion. no arguments no discussion. If you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen and don't tell other people ther comments are "uncalled for" when they criticize some swiller at the public trough calling for spending more taxpayer plunder.
On the contrary, we don’t use super-expensive failsafe robots to mine ores on Earth, because to do so is far far from being cost effective. Likewise, you don’t use super-expensive or prohibitively expensive robots to mine asteroids, when it is so much less expensive to use human workers in space with mining equipment manufactured in space, trasnported across, sapce, maintained in space to mine and transport ores in space for industrial processes in space. Transporting such robotic mining equipment out of Earth’s gravity well is insanely expensive by comparison to human operated and manufactured equipment in spavce, super-robotocized or not. In other words, nothing becomes economical in space exploration or space exploitation until and unless you put a human community on site in space. Imagine how much more expensive it would be to mine ore in Minnesota using workers and human consumption in Melbourne, Australia. The robotic equipment and transportation costs would resemble something like mining ore on the Moon, but without the costs for lifting the masses out of the Earth’s and Moon’s gravity wells.
The solution for all economic hurdles to space exploration and space colonization is to use human comminities and industries in space to reduce the costs to relatively normal levels versus the astronomical costs of transporting between planetary surfaces and space locales.
Want more and cheaper unmanned research spacecraft? manufacture them in space from asteroidal materials mined in space by human communities living in space using resources obtained from space.
“...there are NOT any riches to be had from space exploration.”
Oh really? How about Voyager. Riches include knowledge, not only material return.
A light sail could get a probe (or a crew) to Alpha Centauri in 40 years. Nowadays it’s down to engineering and having the capital to do it, not fundamental physics. I’d be a little worried about sending anyone there, though. The very fact that he volunteered would necessarily mean he would have to be out of his mind.
I don’t know about that. Some people would volunteer just to get some peace and quiet or a subsidized purpose in life and death. Some people commit crimes just to get back into prison.
40 years ship time. A milenium Earth time.
What they also ignore is the fact that there are finite dollars for basic research. If you spend a dollar on exploring the solar system that is a dollar that can’t be used on other basic research. This was a constant criticism of the money spent on NASA by the rest of the science establishment.
Ok try buying your groceries with "Knowledge" of the solar wind or the heliopause.
40.2 years earth time, neglecting any correction for the time needed to get up to speed (0.1c) or decelerate upon arrival. Big relativistic effects only kick in as you get very close to c, especially for short trips. Dilation at 0.1c is only 0.5%.
You are a crank.
Been there, done that. One of my Air force duties was measuring and reporting on the effects of the Solar Wind upon the ionosphere and its height to determine radio propagation effects for missile telmetry, ground based radio broadcasting and reception, and surface to satellite communications. It was also useful for determining atmospheric drag upon LEO (lOW eARTH oRBIT) SATELLITES.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.