Mission to Mars

I understand the importance of expanding our horizons into space. I really do. There are many things to be gained in these ventures. It is a great example of how we as humans have evolved. However there is also a very good point made in how much of a difference could be made in the lives of humans all over this world if we placed the same amount of funding here on Earth. I wonder, as "highly evolved" as we like to think ourselves as humans to be, it almost seems to be a mind-set of "Only The Strong Survive". That statement itself still brings us back to being just simple animals as that is natures creed. As I have said this space venture is very important. At the same time it's sad to see that the weak will fall to the way-side. Just something to think about during our morning coffee. -Mrs.Pope

Your robonaut needs hair. I suggest a mohawk. Actually, this is all very cool. I can't wait to see more about space exploration robotics. When I was little, I was always learning about the planets and space because I wanted to be an astronaut. I often try to imagine what it's like to hover above Earth, but I just can't imagine the vastness of it all. I still am learning about outer space, but mostly on my own, because the closest my high school comes to teaching about outer space is a one-marking period science class about planetary motion. Boring! -Faith Any

Nonsense. I've been listening to this "Zero-Sum" thinking about the American space program for forty years and it is as ridiculous now as it was when I first heard it in 1971. This idea that space exploration is an "either-or" scenario is irrational. The difference between four decades after the moon landings and while they were underway is we have an economic model based on a history of real spending to back up the counter-argument. Since 1965 the US has spent $30 trillion (1970) on anti-poverty programs and by all estimates, poverty has increased. Less than one half of one percent of that total has been spent on ALL of NASA'sprograms. There are vital scientific, perfectly rational arguments to be made against hasty space exploration by humans, but this evolutionary deterministic discussion isn't based on reality

Without a doubt Joel is right on the money. If you look at every one of the US give away programs the percentage and gain has not been one scintilla of what we have gotten in space and NASA in comparison. We have given more to people that want to destroy us then this program The main difference is now it as becoming what it should be , more Private, Corporate and Entrepreneurial interest and finance driven, and that is how it should be. The biggest problem of Apollo and our great accomplishments from 1968 to 1973 were, that no one in government knew this needed to be massively commercialized and merchandized. Everything in business does ! The biggest mistake we ever made was stopping the Moon program. We should have done both the Shuttle and Apollo. Now we face competition from China, Japan, India, Russia and it goes on. Are they really friends that will work with us? Let hope and pray so. One problem about the moon is the average person any age has very little idea what we accomplished against the massive odds done with computers that didn’t come any where near what we all have in our cell phones today. This is a great way to tell that story, create a huge public relations engine to promote going back to moon and beyond and also generate billions of dollars of world wide income. It is still ok to do programs that make money I hope?? Please see moonworldresorts.com for more information and to reserve your trip celebrating modern mans greatest accomplishment. .

Iam all for it if I can go

Re. post 1: I've heard this argument all my life. My counter-argument is: How could 1/6 of 1% of the federal budget (what NASA currently receives) make a significant difference for social programs, etc., if "re-routed" away from NASA and towards social programs? That's an extreme argument; of course, not all of that .06 % goes towards the Constellation program. NASA's budget also supports launching weather satellites, science programs, etc. However, NASA could save money by abandoning its expensive "cost-plus" contracting heritage (since the Apollo program) with the large aerospace companies. Example: the tSpace company proposed a Shuttle replacement which would have cost 1/20 of the contract with Lockheed-Martin to develop the Orion spacecraft. NASA should buy launches/spacecraft from private companies, rather than planning in advance what they want, and awarding contracts to the large companies which offer the closest copy of NASA's design. Again, this is the way NASA has operated since its creation in 1958. tSpace has also designed a much lower cost, more efficient, safer infrastructure which could support a permanent manned presence on the Moon. The Moon, only 3 days away from Earth, offers important resources which we need today to support the survival of our technological civilization: rare metals, such as titanium, needed for microchips, and a rare isoptope of silicon needed for the best solar photoelectric cells; and Helium-3, potentially a safe, clean fuel for fusion reactors here on Earth. The Moon also offers aluminum for space structures, oxygen, year-round solar power, and 1/6 of the escape velocity of Earth. Future space stations, and perhaps even manned and unmanned interplanetary spacecraft, would be best developed from lunar resources. So, I agree that going back to the Moon (perhaps on a rotating crew schedule, like current off-shore platforms on Earth) should be the top space priority. I ask: is our current American culture worthy of that goal? Time will tell.

There is only one certainty about the planet earth. Some day it won't be here...AND THAT WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH HUMAN INTERVENTION. We are in a race against time. The moment we became sentient beings we had a requirement to develop ways to protect our species. The dinosaurs showed us that you either adapt, migrate, or perish. I for one have no intention of disappearing as a species. Space exploration is our first and foremost priority. It should be a unifying effort that transcends international petty jealousies. We are talking survival here which has a great way of putting things into perspective. My greatest nightmare has to be a vision of my standing next to some "save the poor activist" while a 5 mile wide asteroid slingshots around Saturn on a direct collision course with Earth.

There is a certain satisfaction that comes with a sucessful space launch. We all know where we were and what we were doing with Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. As far as giving the same amounts to fight poverty - rubbish! The government cannot correct poverty by throwing money at it. It can correct poverty and many other social ills by educating those in poverty how to get and keep a job. Help these folks get some self respect and they'll do just fine. Support them their whole lives and you'll see another New Orleans after Katrina - people too damn lazy to get out of their own way, otherwise known as the "welfare mentality." Let's go to the moon, mars and beyond. Do what man was meant to do, explore, and leave the social engineering behind.

I agree with many of these posts. We've already reached a point where our food production can't feed the entire planetary population, even if we were to plant rice (the highest yielding crop) over it's entire plantable surface, which of course, is impossible. Our only alternative is to find new places to live or eventually reach a critical population mass where the "have-nots" decide to have what the "have's" have. While this may seem like some sort of doomsday scenario, the possibility is very real as core survival becomes more important than LCD TVs and Excalades. While I think this is still a while off, it will eventually happen and all the social giveaway programs in the world won't keep it from happening eventually. In come space travel. Probably the single most important concept to our survival that gets little or no attention. It's a shame, since I think we'll come to this realization far too late. Let's hope that it doesn't come so late that our ability to reach space becomes impossible due to political and social/military problems on earth.

Theres enough to be done here on earth, which we are destroying everyday. So whats next we are going to destroy the moon too?