Should there be a manned mission to Mars?

Putting a Man on Mars is just the next step in our evolution, think about it. It`s in our genetic make up. We would have never strived to fly like the birds other wise, and would still be forageing around for food and living in caves. Besides we`re screwing up this planet so we`d better find another to colonise pretty soon.

You can look at in a short term view (just Bush vote winning), or the long term - we might need a new home when we have trashed this planet.

Sure, its a waste of money in the big scheme of things, we could build hospitals, solve world poverty, do what ever; but if thats what we really wanted we would elect a goverment that tried to tackle these issues rather than the one who offered the best tax breaks 😉

Mars here we come, does GWB know its not in Asia yet?

Andrew

We can't even run this planet correctly yet. And they want to spend billions, maybe even trillions of dollars to go to Mars. FOR WHAT? Maybe a place to send the starving children and the disabled? BULLS##T

Regards,
Charlie

Good idea, establish a colony on mars. Send all the prisoners there, turn the prisons here into low cost accomodation to house the poor and needy. Then the mars colony can establish themselves. History repeats itself, only now it`s planets, not islands.

Originally posted by Paulie
Good idea, establish a colony on mars. Send all the prisoners there, turn the prisons here into low cost accomodation to house the poor and needy. Then the mars colony can establish themselves. History repeats itself, only now it`s planets, not islands.

Too close, they might escape and come back. At least with Mars we`ll have plenty of time to be ready for them if they do escape.

Black Lung -

You are correct. He would be remembered much more than his predecessor. And those of us who disagree with Bush will be listened to -- just as much as the Nixon supporters who saw Kennedy "interestingly enough (wink, wink)" get every single vote in Chicago, giving Kennedy (who put a man on the moon) the electoral votes in Illinois to win the presidency.

C'est la vie. But if he were to do it, it would be something in his presidency that had a long-lasting impact and impression, something Clinton tried with the middle east, and failed.

Originally posted by Black Lung
The fact the old GW is using this as part of his re-election campaign siKKKKKens me! (Insert spewing emoticon)

Imagine in a hundred years time when future generations learn about the drive of one man to get man to mars, and that man was george, a true visionary. The propaganda potential is enormous! But who else is dumb enough to spend so much money fo ...[text shortened]... an to see how trivial our differences are and what potential lies ahead.

BEAM ME DOWN SCOTTY!

Originally posted by chaswray
We can't even run this planet correctly yet. And they want to spend billions, maybe even trillions of dollars to go to Mars. FOR WHAT? Maybe a place to send the starving children and the disabled? BULLS##T

Regards,
Charlie

Originally posted by rapalla7
I think that the way things are going they will be probing uranus next.😕

It would be great, but there is a looong way to go in understanding the effects of extended time in space on human beings, not to mention the issues of radiation exposure on Mars and in deep space

First, they should build the lunar base. That would help understand these issues. Then, 10 or 20 years, start focusing on manned Mars exploration

Originally posted by flexmore
the ability to send humans all over the place is obviously interesting, but the technology can be developed without actually wasting the effort to do it.

much more interesting is the huge number of adventurous unmanned missions that can be done instead. there are many planets and moons out there, each has a variety of environments to explore.

sending a human is just a publicity stunt.

Originally posted by StarValleyWy
Queen! Listen to these mad men. Should we not cast adrift a fool upon the waves as to squander the wealth of our nation upon dreams and adventure? None of which will bring back wealth that is lost in the sending of the fools? Give me the gold in the coiffer's i say! Nay... give me the chance to invest the gold in tea and in that which is known around t ...[text shortened]...

Silly flexmore giving advice to the spanish crown... circa 1490... need any more be flexed?

Originally posted by misslead
Flex is right if he can say the lives lost will be worth it.

As long as we're at it... What was the first word spoken from the moon?

Answer: "Ok" ... "Landing lights off. Engine Shutdown. Houston. Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."

"Ok"... "Ok"... Maybe that is appropriate. It is the most commonly understood word in the world today.