Cost of Mission to Mars, worth it?

[micrometers]

I used to believe it, but not anymore.

My only interest in Mars is in potentially settling it.

But frankly, that appears impossible. And no progress is being made towards making Mars habitable.

If there was a real push to make Mars habitable, yes I would 1000x. But for pure science? Don't really care.

 

[DrPizza]

I used to believe it, but not anymore.

My only interest in Mars is in potentially settling it.

But frankly, that appears impossible. And no progress is being made towards making Mars habitable.

If there was a real push to make Mars habitable, yes I would 1000x. But for pure science? Don't really care.

Push to make Mars habitable?!

any and all money spent on space exploration is worth it. Obama is a Douche for killing the space program and pretty much destroying NASA.

Obama killed manned space flight to the moon. It would be a complete waste of money, taking money away from programs where we can actually gain new knowledge. There's absolutely no reason to send humans to the moon, or to Mars, except to say we did.

 

[micrometers]

Push to make Mars habitable?!



Obama killed manned space flight to the moon. It would be a complete waste of money, taking money away from programs where we can actually gain new knowledge. There's absolutely no reason to send humans to the moon, or to Mars, except to say we did.

Isn't that the only reason to bother with Mars exploration? To one day settle it?

I disagree about the moon not being worthwhile, however. I would like to see a nice telescope on the dark side of the moon. That would be the next big science project to do after the Higgs Boson.

You have to realize that most innovation has been driven by war and exploration. I think a healthy space program both serves as an inspiration for kids coming up in school (since the president says that he wants more scientists) and to serve as a driver for innovations in tackling problems along the way.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There's absolutely no reason to send humans to the moon, or to Mars, except to say we did.

I have to disagree with manned missions to Mars. Consider this- What probe or program could do as much research on earth as a well trained well equipped field team? There isn't one and there won't be within our lifetimes because humans are vastly superior to improvisation and flexibility of thought. One man on a geological expedition with a hammer and shovel could unearth more than any probe. A few trained in appropriate fields of biology could tell us more than any robotic lab. There is no comparison.

 

[micrometers]

I have to disagree with manned missions to Mars. Consider this- What probe or program could do as much research on earth as a well trained well equipped field team? There isn't one and there won't be within our lifetimes because humans are vastly superior to improvisation and flexibility of thought. One man on a geological expedition with a hammer and shovel could unearth more than any probe. A few trained in appropriate fields of biology could tell us more than any robotic lab. There is no comparison.

Why care about Mars geology if you can't live there? Living on Mars would be nigh impossible without a large scale geoengineering of the climate.

 

[bfdd]

Yes - I'm not affiliated with any political party and have great despise for the Big 2.

so I'm not able to participate in the poll.

 

[Paul98]

anyone who says no is an idiot. That is some of the best money you can spend.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Why care about Mars geology if you can't live there? Living on Mars would be nigh impossible without a large scale geoengineering of the climate.

Well why care about science at all if you can't directly benefit from it? Why explore space if it can't put a dollar in your pocket? If you think that it's no good then there really isn't any point in addressing your questions further. If however one is curious about the science of what's going on a self sustaining habitat allows for more options than a fleet of robotic craft, which as I said are dumb pieces of metal compared to people, no matter how advanced machines might be. Scientific exploration is not the same as some grand sci-fi terraforming scheme.

 

[techs]

Conclusion: London is retarded. Install T3 high speed internet across the entire city? Nonsense. Let's host a bunch of stupid games that do absolutely nothing to improve the speed of porn downloading.

I admire your values.

 

[werepossum]

I used to believe it, but not anymore.

My only interest in Mars is in potentially settling it.

But frankly, that appears impossible. And no progress is being made towards making Mars habitable.

If there was a real push to make Mars habitable, yes I would 1000x. But for pure science? Don't really care.

Lyndon?

 

[TheVrolok]

There's absolutely no reason to send humans to the moon, or to Mars, except to say we did.

I'm surprised to hear this coming from you DrP. There is a massive amount of learning to be done/knowledge to be gained from a manned mission to Mars. You must walk before you can crawl, and traveling to Mars would provide a pretty significant boost in our understanding of long term space flight.

 

[cybrsage]

They are hoping to find some form of life in the history of Mars. If they do, it would give them the power to demand funding for a manned mission - and I think they would get it.

If our current understanding of evolution is true, there must have been life on Mars, since it had the same exact conditions as Earth at one time. If the conditions for life lasted long enough, there could easily still be life on Mars which adapted to the changes which slowly happened to the planet.

Finding a living extra-terrestrial life form would give NASA a huge funding increase.

 

[micrometers]

They are hoping to find some form of life in the history of Mars. If they do, it would give them the power to demand funding for a manned mission - and I think they would get it.

If our current understanding of evolution is true, there must have been life on Mars, since it had the same exact conditions as Earth at one time. If the conditions for life lasted long enough, there could easily still be life on Mars which adapted to the changes which slowly happened to the planet.

Finding a living extra-terrestrial life form would give NASA a huge funding increase.

My earlier pessimism went a little too far. I'm sure that a manned mission to mars would only be a precursor to an eventual terraforming of the planet.

But on the thing about finding life on Mars, it appears to me that it is likely that Mars might have evolved a few single-cell microorganisms at one point in its history.

Which is nice. But so what? There are billions of undiscovered single-cell organisms here on Earth in which to search for a cure for cancer, for instance.

I don't see how a Mars single cell organism would be all that different from a single-cell organism on earth.

 

[bfdd]

lol @ "mars isn't worth it" it has resources idiots. Raw materials we can use and destroy THAT planet instead of this one. Not to mention getting all of our eggs out of a single basket seems like pretty good investment advice for our species.

ITT: Retarded conservatives talk about the uselessness of propagating our species.

 

[cybrsage]

My earlier pessimism went a little too far. I'm sure that a manned mission to mars would only be a precursor to an eventual terraforming of the planet.

But on the thing about finding life on Mars, it appears to me that it is likely that Mars might have evolved a few single-cell microorganisms at one point in its history.

Which is nice. But so what? There are billions of undiscovered single-cell organisms here on Earth in which to search for a cure for cancer, for instance.

I don't see how a Mars single cell organism would be all that different from a single-cell organism on earth.

It would show that life is common and not a fluke. It would raise the odds of there being intelligent life in our galaxy by a huge amount.

 

[micrometers]

It would show that life is common and not a fluke. It would raise the odds of there being intelligent life in our galaxy by a huge amount.

which is nice to know, but doesn't really help solve any real world problems.

It is possible to terraform Mars in my opinion. That would be a nice challenge for industrialized society to tackle, since otherwise industrialized society is too much geared for war.

 

[bfdd]

which is nice to know, but doesn't really help solve any real world problems.

It is possible to terraform Mars in my opinion. That would be a nice challenge for industrialized society to tackle, since otherwise industrialized society is too much geared for war.

Uh... solving the worlds problems? that isn't a possible thing to do, something that is possible and something we're pretty much hardwired to do as is ALL LIFE, is to propagate itself. Unless you believe the human species should go extinct, we absolutely should be figuring out how the hell we can put more of our feet on as many other rocks as we can. idiot conservationists thinking the world will be around forever lol.

 

[1prophet]

Six times mankind landed, walked and drove on the moon, almost 40 years ago.

If the people back then were to look at us now what would they say?

 

[PrinceofWands]

Can't vote in something that assumes a two party system. Put in an 'unaligned' option and I'll vote.

I am fully behind the mission.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Six times mankind landed, walked and drove on the moon, almost 40 years ago.

If the people back then were to look at us now what would they say?

Why are you wasting money on this crap when there are people starving in the streets who lost their homes due to predatory lending? That is exactly what they would say.

 

[cybrsage]

which is nice to know, but doesn't really help solve any real world problems.

No, but it is not intended to do so. Neither is making blue jeans or a new season of Game of Thrones, but most of us want people to do those things anyway.

It is possible to terraform Mars in my opinion. That would be a nice challenge for industrialized society to tackle, since otherwise industrialized society is too much geared for war.

One of the things they are going to try to do is prove water is in the areas we think it is in. If so, that water can be used to put CO2 into the atmosphere and help start the terraforming.

 

[DrPizza]

I have to disagree with manned missions to Mars. Consider this- What probe or program could do as much research on earth as a well trained well equipped field team? There isn't one and there won't be within our lifetimes because humans are vastly superior to improvisation and flexibility of thought. One man on a geological expedition with a hammer and shovel could unearth more than any probe. A few trained in appropriate fields of biology could tell us more than any robotic lab. There is no comparison.

Any biology would apparently be done under a microscope. Let's say you're using a scanning electron microscope. The image is simply computer generated. It doesn't matter if you're looking at the image while standing on Mars or if you're looking at the image while standing on Earth - it's the same image. Perhaps you would be able to more rapidly glance at 20 slides and choose which one to examine more closely in less time. But, compared to the time to even get to Mars, the times savings are miniscule.

As far as a "well equipped field team" - what about a well equipped robot? Very little of the research would be on a macro level. Most of it on a micro level. All the human can do is manipulate samples and run tests on those samples. That's something a robot can do.

Or, to put it another way, name something specific that a human would be able to do that a robot couldn't. Perhaps "improvise" - but again, the improvisation has a pretty good chance of being carried out on Earth, with the robot merely obeying instructions.

 

[DrPizza]

Six times mankind landed, walked and drove on the moon, almost 40 years ago.

If the people back then were to look at us now what would they say?

They might say, "that was pretty smart not to keep going back to the moon. It's like climbing to the top of Mount Everest. All you get out of it is the ability to say, "we did it." Otherwise, there's no useful purpose to going to the moon. Smart decision to put that money into some of the incredible science that you've done. Deep Impact - awesome. And all those Mars rovers - again, awesome! I hope you get that Webb telescope built. And, wtf was up with that Hubble telescope?! What a huge freaking error with the original optics. How'd that get by quality control??? I suppose it did give you something to use that over-priced space shuttle on though."

 

[cybrsage]

Any biology would apparently be done under a microscope. Let's say you're using a scanning electron microscope. The image is simply computer generated. It doesn't matter if you're looking at the image while standing on Mars or if you're looking at the image while standing on Earth - it's the same image. Perhaps you would be able to more rapidly glance at 20 slides and choose which one to examine more closely in less time. But, compared to the time to even get to Mars, the times savings are miniscule.

As far as a "well equipped field team" - what about a well equipped robot? Very little of the research would be on a macro level. Most of it on a micro level. All the human can do is manipulate samples and run tests on those samples. That's something a robot can do.

Or, to put it another way, name something specific that a human would be able to do that a robot couldn't. Perhaps "improvise" - but again, the improvisation has a pretty good chance of being carried out on Earth, with the robot merely obeying instructions.

About the only thing the humans could do better would be the speed of their investigations. It would be faster, and intuition could be used, even taking sleep into account. Oh, and it would be WAY cooler to have humans on Mars than just having rovers.

 

[DrPizza]

Yep. Speed is about the only difference. Then again, it would take a lot longer to plan a manned mission; you could accomplish all the objectives with robots before anyone even left Earth.

In regard to my previous post, read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover#Planetary_science_findings

Tell me what a geologist would figure out - in person - that wasn't determined with the previous generation rover.