NASA gets back into manned spaceflight

But he went in a Mercury capsule which was totally new purpose-built technology.

I agree that that's the sensible way to go. My point was that that's what happened with our earthbound explorations but our space explorations have chosen the mission before developing the technology for it.

 

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Definitely. There was new technology to be developed. But the vehicle that got us to orbit was one we already had.

For the Apollo mission I'd agree. But for almost all our other missions we re-used old stuff, although to your point we always had _something_ new to develop.

Robert Zubrin has said several times that we could go to Mars right now, with current technology - we don't have to wait for anything else. While that is true, waiting for (say) man-rated Dragons and Falcon Heavys makes things a lot easier - because most of the vehicle gets designed and tested before we start spending the big bucks on development.

 

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Sure. And John Glenn walked to the spacecraft just like our hominid ancestors.

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I don't think so.Mr. Goodwrench into orbit to fix our satellites, telescopes, etc.

 

Rather interesting that many want to go to Mars but few will pay for it themselves. The only ones that push really hard at going to Mars are affiliated somehow to businesses that will make huge profits from this endeavor but don't want to take any rish themselves.

 

I think we should go to Mars and am willing to pay for it through increased taxation.

 

I'm willing to let big businesses take the plunge in developing a Martian settlement. Why is it that the government must always be the one who takes all the risks while big businesses build everything they are asked to build? I'm not that all excited in seeing a Martian settlement established because there are way to many problems in doing so. We need to wait until the problems are resolved then perhaps send a few astronauts to Mars just to visit it but not stay there.

I'm still much more in favor of robotic devices to be sent there to explore 24 hours a day 7 days a week which no human can ever achieve. They are much less expensive and if they break down another one could be sent there to take its place. There's more robots being sent anywhere in the cosmos to gain information today and I hope even more in the future. Keeping costs down is a very good thing to be doing since America has a debt of over 18 trillion dollars today and that number will continue growing.

 

?? Bug businesses build whatever they want. That does not always coincide with what, collectively, the people of the US want. That is one of the functions of government, to accomplish things that business (due to lack of a profit motive or lack of intent) cannot or will not do.

To paraphrase Kennedy this isn't something we would do because it's easy. We would do it because it's hard.

I agree that robots are a great first step. But in the long run there is great value to our species in establishing more than one home.

 

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When Kennedy was President America had no debts and was in surplus supply of money. It was nice to have enough money to cover the moon exploration but after that the debt just kept rising and look at where we are today. Why do our species need more than one home. The only reason I can think of is that the earth may suffer some sort of calamity that might make everything extinct. There's one more possibility which is only the elite are paid to build a colony elsewhere and only they make the big money in salaries developing it.

 

When Kennedy was President America had no debts and was in surplus supply of money. It was nice to have enough money to cover the moon exploration but after that the debt just kept rising and look at where we are today. Why do our species need more than one home. The only reason I can think of is that the earth may suffer some sort of calamity that might make everything extinct. There's one more possibility which is only the elite are paid to build a colony elsewhere and only they make the big money in salaries developing it.[/QUOTE]


We certainly were not born, nor will our species stagnate on this fart arse little blue orb.
There's a great big Universe out there, waiting for us.
And in the course of time, and step by step, as technology allows, we will certainly go and explore it.
Economics, as well as Politics are just two variables that will and do change over time.

 

In 1965 our debt was $320 billion - about 40% of our GDP. But we went to the Moon anyway because we thought it was important.

Diversity. Security. Advancements in science and engineering. Long term economic stability,

Well, if there's big money to be made - we should start right now and start paying down the debt!

 

We certainly were not born, nor will our species stagnate on this fart arse little blue orb.
There's a great big Universe out there, waiting for us.
And in the course of time, and step by step, as technology allows, we will certainly go and explore it.
Economics, as well as Politics are just two variables that will and do change over time.[/QUOTE]


And there's many deadly things that we know nothing about as yet. The only thing I hear people talk about at the restaurants I go to have nothing to do with a Martian colony.

 

And now we have 18 trillion in debt, wonderful isn't it and we keep digging ourselves into a deeper hole every second. And when we got to the moon we found nothing there of any real value. We could also build a space station above the Earth if we needed something to go into in case of an Earth emergency which would cost allot less than a mars colony.

 

Paying down the debt when they are spending more every time they vote on the budget because there's more needed Congress says not that there's less to go around.

 

Yes, that's a problem. We should solve that, and spend money only on things with real long term value. IMO, manned Mars exploration is one of those things.

Uh - we did do that.

Sorry, couldn't parse that. I do agree we spend too much on trivial things.

 

And we still have hunger and poverty and pestilence and greed and war and etc etc etc.
That did not stop the Apollo Moon missions, it did not stop the Mars rovers, or the ISS and Cassini and Galileo and New Horizons etc etc etc
And nor should it.
In fact, in reality, the space age and the technological marvels that it has spun, has done miracles for agriculture, Communications, Meteorolgy and many other sciences which has over the course of time, helped with Earthly based problems.

 

I'm sure you will agree that if we all as an International species, stopped making war on each other, which could reduce and/or eliminate the need for militaristic forces and endeavours, the many trillions of dollars saved, could go a long way to eliminate all our Earthly based problems, and still have plenty left over to go where no man has gone before.
Perhaps an effort to obtain that dream, would service us better then any efforts to contain, or deride space exploration and progress of the human race in general.

 

Won't happen. Humans have always been fighting since their beginning. Nothing will stop the never ending war between them.

 

And humans have always been exploring, and going where they have never been before.
And that will never stop.

 

My point was that the costs for developing a Martian colony would be tremendous because they would have to be supplied from Earth things they need to survive. there is no oxygen, no water, no real atmosphere (very slight) and no way to stop radiation from hitting them. So starting a colony won't happen for many decades unless someone with allot of money steps up to make it happen. It will cost hundreds of billions of dollars even trillions. While I agree that exploration will continue I believe it will be a very long time before colonies are built away from earth. Exploration will be done as it is today with robots that will do more and more work than humans can do and they are much cheaper and can't die as humans do.