Posted: 11/21/2007 4:58:46 PM EDT
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I've been wondering if we are still a nation of bold explorers or if we are just an aging empire waiting to collapse? President Bush said we are going to Mars. Russian space agency officials have unveiled a Mars lander. However, this venture won't be cheap. 2 billion dollars per flight to place equipment into orbit. Estimated 10-20 of these flights. Plus all the new technologies that have to be developed. Nuclear rocket engines instead of liquid fuel. Artificial gravity. A way to life off again. Add in the human factor. Cosmic radiation. 2 year trip. 50% loss of muscle mass. Osteoporosis to turn a 40 year old into a 90 year old by the time they return. They will be separated from communications with earth by a time delay of 23 minutes. Any diseases or surgeries will have to be treated with only the material brought along. 18 months on the surface of a foreign world. No instant check-ins with Huston. Nasa wants to do another lunar mission to prepare for the mars mission. Will we have ouyr first space outpost on another celestial body in our life times? Will we be able to look at the moon and see a "city". Tycho base? New Berlin? Mars is the biggest test of our resolve to be explorers. Does ARFCOM care? 
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| That's the biggest, stupidest waste of money in the galaxy. Who gives a shit about any of that shit? There's alot of other things that 10-20 two billion dollar space flights could pay off, like a portion of the national debt. There's a lot better things to spend money on than exploring planets. Why not colonize the ocean floor? There's still parts of the ocean nobody has ever seen. Why not explore that and see what lives down there? This is so stupid and I absolutely loathe the fact that I'm actually helping to subsidize this stupidity. Screw all of this. |
| I support space exploration 100%. The Earth is too small a basket to keep all our eggs in. And, honestly, I want the U.S. to be the first to have offworld colonies, not China. Getting off this planet is a far more worthy place to put money than, say, throwing it down the socialist rathole that is the Farm Bill, or welfare, or Medicare/Medicaid, etc etc ad nauseum. |
Not quite. Not for nuthin, but you're probably paying to raise Lootie's kids. As well as health costs for a few others who've come here illegally from south of the border down mexico way.  |
 This was typed on a home computer! |
Yeah, sure thing. As soon as they figure out how to say, feed all their people. 
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I read about the Russians making plans for a mission to Mars a few weeks ago, and the first thing I thought was "another space race" between the US and RU. So then I was right about the US making plans for the same?  Anyway, I think it will happen but who knows when that will be. What I read, said that the candidates will be placed in a capsule on earth for 15mo and psychologists will examine them throughout the duration. That would suck! But I thought I read that they plan to go up within the next 7 years... Hmm. Maybe this test is just for the psychological value, and others will be conducted before the actual mission. It sure would be nice to see the trip to Mars though! One thing that always bugs me, is that we haven't even explored Earth as much as we should. Not only do we have a lot to learn and see here, there is a whole Ocean that needs to be explored! That's not to knock on space exploration, but to be selective of the endevours, given the limited funding. What will a number of humans accomplish on Mars, that a robot hasn't? Unless we are going to build a station there, I don't see the point. I think the best thing we could do right now, is either construct a very large station (think Death-Star, but on a much smaller scale) somewhere in space, or one on the Moon. |
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socialist waste of $$$$ for the middle class. it allows geeks that can't function in the private sector to get a decent job, as well as it lets companies build crap that won't be made nor needed elsewhere. too bad that we can't have a check box where are tax $$$ goes to work. |
I <3 irony. 
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