NASA Mars exploration!

[Deleted]

That thing weights like a small car. If they can drop a small car onto another planet without breaking it, think what else can we send there. What about people? We could first drop down "houses". Maybe produce livable conditions somewhere.

Do you think permanent mars colony could be possible? There surely are people who could be interested in such attempt even, if it means you probably are not ever getting back.

I find this very interesting even, if I dont probably live long enough to see any of it.

Everything is possible now, we could easily send a man back the the moon - build moon bases - and refineries - then send missions onto other planet/moons like Mars -

They're material out there that are harder/tougher than titanium and lighter then aluminium, but they cost so much to make - the ability is there, just not the cash

it would cost trillions and trillions

[Quiecka]

Because the things you value are the things everyone should, and the Olympics are about people dancing around a stage being watched by idots. Get over yourself.

And the arrival to the moon wasn't a dick measuring contest at all....see what i did there?

[Decagon]

Psh, the media in my town is thoroughly interested in it, they put in almost a paragraph of a footnote outlining it!

[zerocarbs]

I'm all for scientific discovery but many billions of dollars invested yearly and what has the payoff been?

[Laize]

I'm all for scientific discovery but many billions of dollars invested yearly and what has the payoff been?

Why do we need an instant payoff to justify scientific exploration?

This line of thinking is the reason the LHC is in Europe instead of America.

We dont know what the payoff of scientific advancement will be.

That doesnt mean we stop. If it werent for the space race we wouldnt have satellites and satellite tv... who knows what Mars will yield? Why do we have to have a real payoff before scientific advancement is justified?

[semaphore]

I'm all for scientific discovery but many billions of dollars invested yearly and what has the payoff been?

Advances in technology and many more billions dollars' worth of economic activity.

[zerocarbs]

If it werent for the space race we wouldnt have satellites and satellite tv...

Yes we would.

---------- Post added 2012-08-05 at 06:03 PM ----------

Advances in technology and many more billions dollars' worth of economic activity.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[aggixx]

Yes we would.

Umm, what? Please explain.

[Deleted]

Umm, what? Please explain.

The russians already had a sattelite in orbit (which started the space race). Maybe we wouldn't have come as far with space technology today, but we'd surely have sattelites even if the space race never happened.

[semaphore]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

What don't you understand about technological advancement and economic activity? Seems rather straightforward concepts to me.

[lockedout]

And tomorrow while the whole world is watching the Olympics, Curiosity will be landing on Mars and beginning its mission to determine habitability of Mars and plan for a manned mission.

Is anyone else profoundly depressed by how many fucks the world doesn't give about space exploration anymore?

The amount of ingenuity and planning required to automate a landing sequence for a robot 35 million miles away and even land on a specific geologic formation on a planet we've NEVER SET FOOT ON... how does the world look at this and go "Meh"?!

While Curiosity is doing this:


All the world will only concern itself with which country is going to dance around a gymnastics stage the best.

I find this... kind of abhorrent.

We never landed on the moon so I doubt a manned spacecraft to mars will happen any time soon. I know most of you will disagree about this.

Infracted: No conspiracy theories

[zerocarbs]

Umm, what? Please explain.

If there's profit to be made then there will always be an entrepreneur that will try to exploit it. Just look at SpaceX. A real industry that's either going to succeed or fail without the unlimited pockets of the tax payers.

---------- Post added 2012-08-05 at 06:13 PM ----------

What don't you understand about technological advancement and economic activity? Seems rather straightforward concepts to me.

Because bloated bureaucracies that never turn a profit are the driving force of economic growth.

[semaphore]

The russians already had a sattelite in orbit (which started the space race). Maybe we wouldn't have come as far with space technology today, but we'd surely have sattelites even if the space race never happened.

That's besides the point though. The point is that investment in space or related scientific endeavours that resulted in concrete, almost invaluable, real world benefits some years later. So the complaint that it's (only) "billions of dollars for what payoffs" is quite short sighted. Imagine if the Russians threw out the Sputnik project for being a waste of money.

[Deleted]

That's besides the point though. The point is that investment in space or related scientific endeavours that resulted in concrete, almost invaluable, real world benefits some years later. So the complaint that it's (only) "billions of dollars for what payoffs" is quite short sighted. Imagine if the Russians threw out the Sputnik project for being a waste of money.

He wanted an explanation of how we would still have sattelites today if the space race didn't happen, not the cost but yes you're right. The worst thing science knows is having no money to play with.

[Wikiy]

Okay, i see a lot of people in this thread are deeply misguided.

The Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, isn't going to land to Mars to find out whether it's habitable (we already know it isn't, technology is the only thing that can now deem it habitable by terraforming) or to find precious metals. That'd be absurd, paying 2,5 billion dollars to find gold deposits? You'd need hundreds, if not thousands of tons to make up for it. It's purpose is to find out whether there is or has been life on Mars, or at least if there ever were the right conditions for it. And yes, it's worth paying 2,5 billion dollars to answer one of the most important questions of humanity. Besides, if this amount of money is spread out over the roughly 300 million citizens of the US, it turns out to be 8,33 dollars per person. I want to hear someone tell me that it's not worth every American paying 8,33 dollars so that every human being could be closer to knowing the truth about whether we are or have been the only life in the universe.

[Pendulous]

This is NOT a thread about the Olympics and this is NOT a thread about media. Next time you create a topic, please keep in mind what comments will throw it off-topic. Please keep the discussion to Curiosity and Mars.

[Deleted]

Okay, i see a lot of people in this thread are deeply misguided.

The Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, isn't going to land to Mars to find out whether it's habitable (we already know it isn't, technology is the only thing that can now deem it habitable by terraforming) or to find precious metals. That'd be absurd, paying 2,5 billion dollars to find gold deposits? You'd need hundreds, if not thousands of tons to make up for it. It's purpose is to find out whether there is or has been life on Mars, or at least if there ever were the right conditions for it. And yes, it's worth paying 2,5 billion dollars to answer one of the most important questions of humanity. Besides, if this amount of money is spread out over the roughly 300 million citizens of the US, it turns out to be 8,33 dollars per person. I want to hear someone tell me that it's not worth every American paying 8,33 dollars so that every human being could be closer to knowing the truth about whether we are or have been the only life in the universe.

People in this thread aren't misguided, you just didn't bother to read anything. Obviously it's known Mars isn't habitable, but the discussion about precious metals stemmed from the fact that the majority of this planet don't give a flying fuck about this mission, unless it's about gold/oil or whatever.

[semaphore]

Because bloated bureaucracies that never turn a profit are the driving force of economic growth.

NASA isn't a commercial operation. Why the hell would you use "turn a profit" as a criteria for anything it does? The fact is NASA has provided a disproportionally large economic impact, both directly because of its spending, and indirectly through the application of its technology in the wider economy.

[Nerph-]

And tomorrow while the whole world is watching the Olympics, Curiosity will be landing on Mars and beginning its mission to determine habitability of Mars and plan for a manned mission.

Is anyone else profoundly depressed by how many fucks the world doesn't give about space exploration anymore?

The amount of ingenuity and planning required to automate a landing sequence for a robot 35 million miles away and even land on a specific geologic formation on a planet we've NEVER SET FOOT ON... how does the world look at this and go "Meh"?!

While Curiosity is doing this:

<video>

All the world will only concern itself with which country is going to dance around a gymnastics stage the best.

I find this... kind of abhorrent.

Bolded the 2 interesting parts for me. You really think there will be a manned mission to Mars any time soon? I have no idea what advancement's we've made, but keeping 1 or more humans alive on a 35 million mile flight to Mars and back seems pretty near impossible, if not impossible, in our lifetime, the lifetime of our kids and their kids and so forth. That's only my prediction of course, I'd love to hear arguments as to how we plan to keep someone alive for a 70 million mile journey.

[Deleted]

Its exciting to finally be able to get some more data from a planet that once might held multicelular life on it.
Although I think we are far from colonising or even sending maned expeditions if we dont solve the prolonged effects of zero gravity on the human body.
If only it was as easy as Stargate