Mission to Mars & Space Exploration

[42Presidents]

I'm a huge advocate of space exploration and a proponent of the "Mission to Mars" concept. However, for whatever reason, its not receiving a whole lot of traction either by mainstream media, politicians, or corporate pioneers. There is the occasional mention of a new potential space shuttle or the space trip to the moon but they only receive minimal interest.

I would like to see a more serious promotion of the U.S. Space program, NASA, and future missions. Not for the sake of profitable travel but for the sake of humanity's future. I believe space exploration is the future of our nation and of this planet. I think humans future existence will hinge on our ability to explore other planets and cultivate new colonies on these planets. Whoever controls the Earth's orbital sphere will militarily control the world. If not the U.S., I fear nations such as China or Russia could use that power to drastically remap the Super Powers of this planet.

In conclusion, our nation needs to maintain an emphasis on space exploration and developing new technologies that enhance our ability to protect ourselves from space but also allow for future space travel to other planets.

Curious to hear others opinions on this subject.

 

[dilloduck]

I'm a huge advocate of space exploration and a proponent of the "Mission to Mars" concept. However, for whatever reason, its not receiving a whole lot of traction either by mainstream media, politicians, or corporate pioneers. There is the occasional mention of a new potential space shuttle or the space trip to the moon but they only receive minimal interest.

I would like to see a more serious promotion of the U.S. Space program, NASA, and future missions. Not for the sake of profitable travel but for the sake of humanity's future. I believe space exploration is the future of our nation and of this planet. I think humans future existence will hinge on our ability to explore other planets and cultivate new colonies on these planets. Whoever controls the Earth's orbital sphere will militarily control the world. If not the U.S., I fear nations such as China or Russia could use that power to drastically remap the Super Powers of this planet.

In conclusion, our nation needs to maintain an emphasis on space exploration and developing new technologies that enhance our ability to protect ourselves from space but also allow for future space travel to other planets.

Curious to hear others opinions on this subject.

A colossal waste of money--if you wanna blow that much money, go for time traveling. That I might be interested---a human colony on Mars in a silly myth.

 

[42Presidents]

A colossal waste of money--if you wanna blow that much money, go for time traveling. That I might be interested---a human colony on Mars in a silly myth.

I disagree; I feel we cannot afford to not make this a reality. Our planet has its limits and we will need to reach out beyond its orbit for additional resources and scientific curiosity.

 

[dilloduck]

I disagree; I feel we cannot afford to not make this a reality. Our planet has its limits and we will need to reach out beyond its orbit for additional resources and scientific curiosity.

Mars has more limits than earth does for a human. We would HAVE to take Earths resources to even make Mars habitable much less somewhere anyone would want to spend a lifetime. Gimme something big--worm holes--anything but Mars ? Ain't gonna happen.

 

[Abelian Sea]

I would like to see a more serious promotion of the U.S. Space program, NASA, and future missions. Not for the sake of profitable travel but for the sake of humanity's future. I believe space exploration is the future of our nation and of this planet. I think humans future existence will hinge on our ability to explore other planets and cultivate new colonies on these planets. Whoever controls the Earth's orbital sphere will militarily control the world. If not the U.S., I fear nations such as China or Russia could use that power to drastically remap the Super Powers of this planet.

I agree with you, but it will not happen until profitability and/or military advantage is closely achievable, given the enormous initial investments involved.

No wealthy government will spend on space expansion unless it will give it a leg up on another government (and fairly quickly; no multi-generational projects). Right now that basically means satellites, mainly for intell-gathering. There is not yet any particular advantage to having, say, a station on the moon.

No wealthy private business will spend on space expansion until it will result in profits within its leadership's likely tenure. Right now that basically means satellites, mainly for communication.

I imagine that at some point it may pay off to mine other planets but we're not done with this one yet.

We'll get there someday, I think, and interesting times will ensue. It's probably a good way off, though, and just like we aren't going to start seriously integrating alternative energies into our infrastructure until we seriously start to have no choice, we won't be truly utilizing other planets until we really feel that we have to.

Once those commercial endeavors start, though, expansion of population is near-inevitable. After a few generations of humanity coming to see living off-planet as a mundane possibility, and after a few generations of various nations warring over off-planet resources, both the technology and will to move to other planets will be abundant enough for some serious colonization.

I'm thinking it will be a lot like Europeans taking the New World. Lots of pioneering, wars, trading, and eventually new nations. Oh, and heaven help any indigenous life forms.

 

[dilloduck]

I think of space as the Scientists heaven. There just HAS to be life in the great beyond. I personally still prefer time travel. We haven't even touched time. Think big. A whole new dimension that will make Saturn 5s look like ants.

 

[Abelian Sea]

I think of space as the Scientists heaven. There just HAS to be life in the great beyond. I personally still prefer time travel. We haven't even touched time. Think big. A whole new dimension that will make Saturn 5s look like ants.

That's a very cool idea, but the thing about other planets is that we can actually see them and that we know we can get to them.

The past, we have only memories and traces. The future, we have only plans and speculation. "Other dimensions," we can only imagine and theorize about.

I don't expect that we'll run into other life in the great beyond anytime soon (if ever), but I think that the supposition that there's something somewhere in the immensity around us that we'd be tempted to label "life" is more reasonable than the supposition that there isn't. After all, it's happening here; is Earth really so special that not one of any of the other countless dust motes out there shares a similar phenomenon?

 

[JuniorCitizen]

If the economy was booming, many more people would be supporting a Mars mission.

 

[editec]

Space exploration gives the propeller-heads something to do besides building bigger and better weapons systems.

I say go for it.

 

[Uknow_me72]

The mar's mission are not being supported because they are showing us nothing. They have found something but they are not showing it. We get all this crap shots.

The media and elite want it to have minimal coverage, they want just enough so they can justify where money goes.

If they show you something on Mars that makes the enitre world wonder about it and want more information it will take the audiance away from all the distractions and problems they have created here.

 

[42Presidents]

I do see profitability and military advantage in pushing the space exploration agenda. It's not readily just sitting there for us to grab a hold of but I do believe its there. If we were to just focus on satellite technology alone, there is tremendous potential in that market. Without the satellites we have today, advanced nations would crumble in days. Whoever manages to take the upper hand on orbital control of this planet is going to control the world we live in. If a Russia or a China was to somehow develop a satellite-killing mechanism or orbital drone w/ missle systems, they could destroy all other countries satellites and hinder them defenseless. At the same time, the satellites they do have in orbit could have the ability to target any location on earth and wipe it out with some sort of laser or missle system or even an electronic/magnetic pulse system which could wipe out a regions electrical components. This may seem far fetched but I don't believe it is and I think our country has the technology already.

The military aspect is only one piece of this grand scheme but an important one. I am interested in what resource potential that could be discovered on another planet. Don't take from Earth to colonize Mars, take what's already there assuming its usable. There are elements and natural resources yet to be discovered that could advance human technology ten fold; we only have to reach out and discover it.

 

[Uknow_me72]

42P:
If all the govt's were not working with each other that would have already happened.

Fact: The world is not what it appears to be. You only believe that the governments have a problem with each other because the news papers and TV says so. You wouldn't know anything about those issue's if it wasn't so. So if you controlled the media, can you make stories up that people might believe? Can you keep people distracted?

 

[dilloduck]

Space exploration gives the propeller-heads something to do besides building bigger and better weapons systems.

I say go for it.

Why can't they play in the ocean--it's big.

 

[Glori.B]

Why can't they play in the ocean--it's big.

i'm pretty sure they do that too!

 

[dilloduck]

42P:
If all the govt's were not working with each other that would have already happened.

Fact: The world is not what it appears to be. You only believe that the governments have a problem with each other because the news papers and TV says so. You wouldn't know anything about those issue's if it wasn't so. So if you controlled the media, can you make stories up that people might believe? Can you keep people distracted?

Great sci-fi story there, Isaac ! What happened to earthquake that was supposed to level China ?

 

[Uknow_me72]

It is going to happen just not on our schedule. Kind of sucks though that you rather death and destruction to have a point proved to you.

 

[glockmail]

Right now we have a bigger problem: energy independence. Until we do that we won't have the money to spend on a Mars mission. Just like any other government boondoggle, take their current estimate and add one or two more zeros on the end.
And higher priority than Mars would be a plan to deflect or capture asteroids. That will increase our chances of surviving the next Deep Impact, and if we can capture a big one, we’ll have enough high grade iron ore to build an entire fleet of space vehicles, and we won’t have to lift the tonnage into orbit.

 

[Skull Pilot]

for one, colonization of mars is unlikely if not impossible.

I'll give just a couple reasons.

The main reason is that Mars wobbles on its axis therefore there are no predictable seasons or climate zones other than the poles. pretty hard to sustain a population without these two planetary characteristics

http://http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070912_mars_ice.html

you'll notice in the above article that our moon attenuates our own planet's wobble and gives us our much more predictable climate.

The Second reason i will note is that Mars has virtually no magnetic field or magnetosphere. A magnetosphere is a necessary part of atmospheric stability.

NASA/Marshall Solar Physics

Our own magnetosphere deflects the solar winds which other wise would strip our atmosphere away. even if we somehow managed to manufacture an atmosphere for mars, it would not last.

So really any hopes of colonizing mars for the future of man is really not feasible.

 

[52ndStreet]

I'm a huge advocate of space exploration and a proponent of the "Mission to Mars" concept. However, for whatever reason, its not receiving a whole lot of traction either by mainstream media, politicians, or corporate pioneers. There is the occasional mention of a new potential space shuttle or the space trip to the moon but they only receive minimal interest.

I would like to see a more serious promotion of the U.S. Space program, NASA, and future missions. Not for the sake of profitable travel but for the sake of humanity's future. I believe space exploration is the future of our nation and of this planet. I think humans future existence will hinge on our ability to explore other planets and cultivate new colonies on these planets. Whoever controls the Earth's orbital sphere will militarily control the world. If not the U.S., I fear nations such as China or Russia could use that power to drastically remap the Super Powers of this planet.

In conclusion, our nation needs to maintain an emphasis on space exploration and developing new technologies that enhance our ability to protect ourselves from space but also allow for future space travel to other planets.

Curious to hear others opinions on this subject.

Your post borders on insanity.You, and people that have this insane desire
for space exploration don't realize that Humans were created by God to live here on Earth. Not the Moon, or Mars. When the human body ventures into
space environment, of zero G, the first thing that starts happening is that our
bones begin to lose calcium.The second factor is exposure to large amounts of Gama, and uv radiation, exposure can be deadly.We must remember that in space, we do not have the protection that
the Ozone layer provides.

I don't know where you space fanatics get this idea that Humans future lies in space?, our that we are some how destined to venture into outer space.!?
We are beings of the Planet Earth. Our bodies are 98% water.We can not exists in the vacum of space without that bulky space suit.These other planets are either to hot or to cold , or don't have enough oxygen to maintain
any life, not just human life, I mean any life at all.

Not to mention all the navigational problems that can occur on these long
missions that span billions of millions of miles.The distances are to great.
This is just how God designed it. So humans would not venture out to where he did not intend them to be.

We have enough things to develop right here on Earth.We must tend to the Millions starving here on Earth, before we waste billions on egotistical
space explorations.

 

[Abelian Sea]

This is just how God designed it. So humans would not venture out to where he did not intend them to be.

We already have. We will continue to.

Know that "Garden of Eden" story? We will always push past where we're supposed to go.

We have enough things to develop right here on Earth.We must tend to the Millions starving here on Earth, before we waste billions on egotistical
space explorations.

I agree that it's not practical at the moment to make it a top priority.

I do think it will happen eventually, though. It's in our defiant and crafty nature, and will someday be needed to accomodate our ravenous and uncompromising species.