Will we make it to mars by the year 2010, as president Bush has suggested?

We've got the technological ability, but will we really have the financial ability?

I'd say by 2020.

not a hope in hell.

Bah what do you know, you don't even live here

We will only if they put in the required funding. Which aint going to happen. There's the wrong sort of culture at NASA, for a start.

Originally posted by fafalone

Bah what do you know, you don't even live here

Bureacracy is internationally recognised.

Bush needs to dump some money into some big aerospace contracts or our engineers will be on unemployment. It will be good for the economy in general. I say we'll do it.

Just aman

All the governments aerospace money is going to bailing commercial airlines out of bankruptcy.

I think that we should be able to accomplish some sort of livible conditions such as buldings on the moon before we begin thinking about going to Mars.

 

What about equipping ourselves with weapons if we go to Mars? The martians wont take to kindly to us landing in person on their planet. They can handle our RC vehicles but not us ourselves. Have you seen Mission To Mars???? It was a disaster! All because they hadn't planned on some force attacking them.

 

We should be careful :uhh:

All we have to do is take our helmet off and sneeze. Instant bioweapon and their all dead. One small fart should cover a square mile in the thin atmosphere. We are going to be sources of all sorts of contamination.

Just aman

We are presently capable of the trip. In fact, we are far more capable of going to Mars today than we were of going to the moon in 1969 (as was evident by Appollo 13).

 

We should have been there had the last administration slashed funding to NASA by nearly 72%.

 

Bill

I still cannot quite work out if China will be mounting a trip to Mars. They are quite insistant that they will, hopefully they'll land on Europa and get attacked by the giant alien sea creature as is fortold.

i think it will definately need an international effort. a project of this scale is vastly expensive, and although the technology exists, it also has a lot of risks. i reckon it would be a much better idea to wait until the ISS is finished, and maybe use this as some kind of launching platform.

 

i agree though that we'll probably be there by 2020. 2010 is a bit optimistic.

No. We've had the financial ability before just as well as the scientific ability. Look at history, it's a cruel lesson.

I would like for us to go to mars but the US just isnt hungry anymore.

We COULD have had a well established Lunar base in the 90`s Mars is possible now and has been for some time, but for 2 things, 1)getting over petty squables, and 2) International cooperation.

I vote MAYBE.

It will happen before 2020.

Must beleive! I don't beleive in god. But I beleive in the god of war:)

2) International cooperation.

 

Definately. The trouble is, NASA seems to think that they own space, and that they can just govern what goes up and who sends it - as in the recent ISS stuff that's been going on with Russia.

I dont know what i find more unbelievable. Getting to mars by 2010 or the fact that someone actually listened to something bush said. I doubt we will be on mars by then. I remember someone saying a round trip to mars could take a few years. Thats a lot of fuel, supplies and tiolet paper chaps.

not a chance in hell; we'll be $1.2 trillion in debt by then if bush stays in office. good thing he won't

it`ll never happen until mankind gets over his own self interest and perceived "loyalty" to false causes and his GOD called Money!

Return to the Moon: by 2015 at the earliest.

First Mars mission: no earlier than 2030.

Moon base: maybe by 2040-2050.

Mars settlement: 2060-2080.

 

And I'm a very optimistic person!

 

The main problem is of course, as always, funding. And that problem won't go away anytime soon.

I firmly believe we should invest all our "space money" in probes, landers, rovers and orbiters. And telescopes. And Earth sciences satellites.

I'd also like to see a probe going out to Pluto.

 

Manned spaced flights should be limited to LEO missions. They're not worth the money. It's nice enough for "glory points", but not much else, yet.

 

It would be pretty cool if I lived to see a high-speed probe going out to where one of the Voyager probes is now. I reckon that with beefed-up RTGs and ion propulsion units, coupled with solar sails (for the inner part - for speed), a probe could reach that far in less than half the time it took Voyager.

Since the last Apollo mision, man never put his foot on other planet! It's a gap of 30 years! The lack of interest will simply persist in the case of Mars. Only if something really bad is happening on the planet we will go there. Or if

antimater transportation is realesed by then. (wormhole)-not likely. A helthy normal man wouldn't resist so much time in space(mentaly and physicaly).