I say "we" because I would imagine our Canadian government(among others) would be asked for financial support.
Good artical on CNN on why this should happen soon.
Quote:
America's human spaceflight program is now adrift. On July 8, the space shuttle is scheduled to make its final flight, and the Obama administration has no coherent plan for what to do next.
Instead, as matters stand, the United States will waste the next decade spending $100 billion to support an aimless constituency-driven human spaceflight effort that goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing.
Quote:
As a result of a string of successful probes sent to the Red Planet over the past 15 years, we now know for certain that Mars was once a warm and wet planet, possessing not only ponds and streams, but oceans of water on its surface. It continued to have an active hydrosphere on the order of a billion years -- a span five times as long as the time it took for life to appear on Earth after there was liquid water here.
Thus, if the theory is correct that life is a natural phenomenon emerging from chemistry wherever there is liquid water, various minerals and a sufficient period of time, then life must have appeared on Mars.
Furthermore, we know that much of that water remains on that planet today as ice or frozen mud, with the soil of continent-sized regions of the planet assessed as being more than 60% water by weight. Not only that, scientists have discovered that Mars has liquid water, not on the surface, but underground, where geothermal heating has warmed it to create environments capable of providing a home for life on Mars today.
We have found places where water flowed out of the underground water table and down the slopes of craters within the past 10 years.
Quote:
If we go to Mars and find fossils of past life on its surface, we will have good reason to believe that we are not alone in the universe.
Can't see why not. We're slowly working towards the realization that we're not the only form of life in the Universe. Might as well speed up the process, I think it would be so cool to discover alien life in my lifetime.
The Following User Says Thank You to malcolmk14 For This Useful Post:
I think we should continue to develop our spaceflight programs, including travel to other planets, if for no other reason than to help programs to develop alternative source of energy.
That, and I really would like an authentic Bat'leth sooner than later, these knock offs are really of sub-par quality.
__________________
"Wake up, Luigi! The only time plumbers sleep on the job is when we're working by the hour."
The Following User Says Thank You to Rathji For This Useful Post:
Absolutely. The space program is extremely important in my opinion. It brings upon technological advancements that can be used on our own planet. The sooner we start exploring the idea of space travel, the sooner we can develop ways for faster-than-light travel and such.
Mars will never be a Substainable Colony. Even if the planet were Terraformed it lacks the rare minerals that Earth Possesses. If Mars were to have a Colony it would need to be constantly resupplied from Earth.
On that note I think its important that we continue our progress into space. I think this HD Space live feed will encourage the younger generation to get into the whole space thing.
It is time to go beyond LEO with people as explorers. The purpose of sustained human exploration is to go to Mars and beyond. The significance of the Moon and other intermediate destinations is to serve as steppingstones on the path to that goal.
Bringing together scientists, astronauts, engineers, policy analysts, and industry executives in a single conversation created an environment where insights across traditional boundaries occurred.
Human space exploration is undertaken to serve national and international interests. It provides important opportunities to advance science, but science is not the primary motivation.
Sustained human exploration requires enhanced international collaboration and offers the United States an opportunity for global leadership.
NASA has not received the budget increases to support the mandated human exploration program as well as other vital parts of the NASA portfolio, including space science, aeronautics, technology requirements, and especially Earth observations, given the urgency of global climate change.
Additional recommendations will be provided by the organizers and participants in this workshop.
We need to get some Total Recall-esque atmosphere machines. Or pay the Weyland-Yutani Corp. to commission some atmospheric converters.
Speaking of Total Recall, I was watching it again a couple weeks ago, and, although it's still a good Arnie flick, some parts of the movie were really stretching it. I mean, you would think the structures would be heavily built, with at least bullet proof glass or something. A bullet into the glass is enough to break it, and thus kill everyone? Come on. That's even more unbelievable than the girl with the three jugs.
Speaking of Total Recall, I was watching it again a couple weeks ago, and, although it's still a good Arnie flick, some parts of the movie were really stretching it. I mean, you would think the structures would be heavily built, with at least bullet proof glass or something. A bullet into the glass is enough to break it, and thus kill everyone? Come on. That's even more unbelievable than the girl with the three jugs.
Any movie that employs a character like Quatto has already taken the "Book of Realism" and drop-kicked it through a plate glass window into a volcano.
Who knows, it could be super space Mars bullets of ultimate glass breaking power ultimate.
Should we spend the $$$ to go to Mars?
