NASA's moon plan worries Mars scientists

[Rich Parsons]

NASA's moon plan worries Mars scientists


At the following link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_on_sc/mars_moon

A quick article about the benefits and issues with a Manned Moon trip versus Mars.

 

[MA-Caver]

While I think it's great that NASA is eye-ing the moon again, I feel that they shouldn't have stopped with the Apollo program and it's moon-oriented missions. But of course there was the war(s) and the high cost of space explorations, and I don't mean in the terms of human lives because that is costly irregardless but it's part of exploration anyway... (more on that in a minnit). But the high costs from greedy developers and contractors who build the rockets and shuttles and everything else for the space program that make such ventures so expensive for the tax payers. Example: it costs $450 MILLION dollars for an average Space Shuttle mission. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html
We are way behind in our space program in that we haven't scratched the surface of Arthur Clark's vision of 2001. We should've already had a permanent base on the moon, peopled by all races and all countries and all working together to benefit mankind. We should already in 2006 be doing manned long-journey's to the farthest reaches of our own solar-system.
Now we're finding out Mars has great potential for human habitation (even on a limited scale). A launch from a moon base would benefit us greatly in cutting the distance down, maybe not by too much but enough to cut down on fuel consumption in trying to break free of a gravitational pull. Perhaps if NASA says that Mars shows a rich oil deposit under the surface that the oil-companies will rush to fund the space program in an effort to be the first ones to drill there. <sarcastic>
That the costs in human lives in exploration has always been high. How many sailors died before Cook finally managed to reach the indies? How many trappers and explorers died before Lewis and Clark? How many died trying to reach the North and South Poles before Peary and Edmundsen? How many died attempting to summit Everest before Sir Edmund Hillary planted his country's flag there? How many men are still dying daily from curiosity trying to figure out the mysteries of women? rolleyes: )
Now figure the costs of those who had died in the space program? Compare those who have died in (all) the wars since Presidents Kennedy and Krushev began the program(s) way back when, this includes Americans, Russians, Chinese, etc.
But greed, selfishness, war-mongering and hatred continues to stagnates man's capability to reach the stars which has been a common dream for centuries (yea even for several millenias) all around the globe. Something the entire planet can contribute to in reaching that dream.
So for now these have to be postponed or drawn out over decades instead of years until enough money can be raised to achieve them.

Sad, I think.

 

[exile]

But greed, selfishness, war-mongering and hatred continues to stagnates man's capability to reach the stars which has been a common dream for centuries (yea even for several millenias) all around the globe. Something the entire planet can contribute to in reaching that dream.
So for now these have to be postponed or drawn out over decades instead of years until enough money can be raised to achieve them.

Sad, I think.

I agree completely, MA-C.

When I was quite a young kid, I stumbled upon the idea, which became kind of fixed, that humanity was going to land on the moon, and learn to live there (and I would get to visit), and use it as a jumping-off point for explorations far, far away in space, very far from the Solar System. And it was obvious in the 1960s that that was about to happen. And then it stopped, obviously on a very temporary basis. And then not so temporary... and eventually it became clear to me that there was an excellent chance I wouldn't live to see a manned expedition to Mars, when by now, by rights, we could have had manned expeditions to the moons of Jupiter under way... the abandonment of the manned space program has always left me with a feeling of genuine sadness, involving a sense of personal loss because there are so many things I wanted to know about Out There, and now it's unlikely we'll get Out There in time for me to learn them. And it's not as though we were exactly wise in using the resources that we didn't use on the space program...

 

[Carol]

Unfortunately NASA's PR and our educational system has been completlely inept at stressing how our world has been revolutionized because of the space program.

Small lightweight electronics.

Seatbelts.

Treatments for cancer.

Safer airports and airlines.

Need I say more?

 

[MA-Caver]

Unfortunately NASA's PR and our educational system has been completlely inept at stressing how our world has been revolutionized because of the space program.

Small lightweight electronics.

Seatbelts.

Treatments for cancer.

Safer airports and airlines.

Need I say more?

No, but I don't think it's all the PR dept's. fault when various presidential administrations since Kennedy haven't been as supportive of the space program until Reagan and he just wanted to put killing satellites in our atmosphere to help put an end to the Cold War. Well, bully for you Ronnie but boo to you for stopping the shuttle from going anywhere else except 200 miles out.
Now of course they said that the STARWARS satellite program was just a myth to scare the russians to the summit tables... yeah... since we don't get to see anything of the shuttle's (complete) cargo manifest we don't know what the hell they put up there, and are continually putting up there.
That being said had the Johnson's (HA!) administration and Nixon not been so focused on winning a losing war in Vietnam and concentrated on the space program maybe... MAYBE we'd be a bit farther along and closer to mars.

 

[theletch1]

I've always thought that the moon would be a great place to set up an industrial/science settlement and use the lack of gravity to build spacecraft that were far larger and more powerful than any that could be built in earths gravity. Launching a huge ship from the moon would require sooo much less fuel than breaking free of earths gravity and would leave the extra fuel for travelling deeper into space. Of course the old rocket style propulsion needs to be history if we're truly ever going to go visiting around the universe.