http://news.ninemsn.com.au/sci_tech/story_27968.asp

Now don't you think he is taking this search for weapons of mass distruction a bit too far? :D

Can we send Bush to Mars? ;) [img]smile.gif[/img] :D


Mark

I wholeheartedly support expanding space exploration. I am concerned that the $10 billion funding that will come from "other NASA programs" may empty the funds of some of the more R&D side of NASA, which has proved itself very valuable.

Great minds think alike...at a speech in Iowa, given by Howard Dean, he said that he thinks sending a man to Mars was a great idea and that Bush should be the first one to go! :D

Mark

I heard that someone at NASA told him that if there used to be water on Mars, there may have been life, which means there may be oil there! So that means we must invade! [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

Hmmm. Maybe Bush wants to go to Mars. Fine by me.

Oh hell yeah! Why should we be content with just conquering the Earth when we can take Mars too?

I wouldn't feel too comfortable sending people to Mars after they managed to lose the Beagal 2. I would rather wait till we have some more information.

[img]graemlins/alien10.gif[/img]


Must send warning back home.Earthlings are coming, danger ,danger !!


[img]graemlins/abduct.gif[/img]

[ 01-15-2004, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: wellard ]

Send Bush!!Don't forget his buddies Rummy Asscroft and Channey

Revamping space exploration is always positive, whoever pays for it.

And seriously guys, why all the cheap shots on Bush? I really liked Clinton as a US president and it annoys me when people rag on him just for the sake of it, so try cutting Bush and his supporters a little slack too huh? If you have legit criticisms then fine, otherwise you're just picking fights. Sorry to sound like a nanny, but rhetorical cheap-shots start wars...

I think it's a fine idea. Chrissake, I was supposed to have the option of living on a moon colony during my life. If watching an astronaut walk on Mars is as close as I can get, I'm all for it.

Of course (WARNING -- BOMB), there is always the issue of how, like Johnson, another Texas president is securing long-term money for Texas. [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] But, I'm willing to forego that for a very good program.

And I note this is yet another link between how Kennedy and Bush think and act. ;)

If the money is going spare then by all means do it.

Of course this isn't the first time this has been floated by a Bush! :D

Snr suggested a trip to the moon and to mars in 1989 but it was dropped because of the cost of $400 billion (at the time).

I saw Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes yesterday and he makes a good point about the mission to Mars. We're spending $1.5 billion to go there yet we have yet to solve our problems here on at home.

I'm all for exploration and the seeking of knowledge. In a way, it's continuing where Columbus and Ponce de Leon and all those guys left off.
However...
It's just too much money right now. We can't spare it when we need it back here.

But human problems can never be 'solved'! Famine, War, Pestilence, Death, they will be with our species until its inevitable extinction. The best you can hope for is distraction. Mass distraction provides temporary unity. Get everyone involved in some lofty project, no matter how unrealistic, and take their minds off've the hungers and malcontent that they have in their daily lives. This tactic has been employed by power-figures since the dawn of civilisation. If you are not distracting your populace with empty promises of religious salvation, then do it with consumerist 'perfection'. Get people to want to buy houses and cars and kitchenware, and to find 'true love'. And if people start to realise that THAT is a false dream as well, then distract them with scientific goals such as exploring space or 'curing cancer'.
Why fight it? Your human brain is far too big to ever be content with what it has. It needs constant stimulation, even if it costs billions of taxpayer dollars ;)

[ 01-27-2004, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

Realize that if people are sent to Mars, it is unlikely that they would be able to return to Earth. It is essentially a suicide mission. At the moment it is not possible to carry enough fuel to make the trip and come back.

Mark

But there's a much better chance if they can launch from the moon, hence the talks about a permanent base there. People WILL walk Mars someday, you better believe it.

Rubbish! What about dilithium crystals!!!

It's science Jim but not as we know it.!!

But human problems can never be 'solved'! Famine, War, Pestilence, Death, they will be with our species until its inevitable extinction. The best you can hope for is distraction. Mass distraction provides temporary unity. Get everyone involved in some lofty project, no matter how unrealistic, and take their minds off've the hungers and malcontent that they have in their daily lives. This tactic has been employed by power-figures since the dawn of civilisation. If you are not distracting your populace with empty promises of religious salvation, then do it with consumerist 'perfection'. Get people to want to buy houses and cars and kitchenware, and to find 'true love'. And if people start to realise that THAT is a false dream as well, then distract them with scientific goals such as exploring space or 'curing cancer'.
Why fight it? Your human brain is far too big to ever be content with what it has. It needs constant stimulation, even if it costs billions of taxpayer dollars ;) </font>[/QUOTE]Good point Hiero. My thoughts too when any leaders spend this much money on something seemingly good for al humanity YET realistically frivolous during this time of war and bad economy. I'm still pondering why Bush. Of all people in this world and especially from a conservative person, why this Mission to Mars idea. I just don't get it. There must be some underlying or lying reason.

Perhaps it's because so many discoveries by NASA have military applications? Directly or indirectly... After all, don't we now use NASA-based technology to steer missiles or something like that?

In response to comments made about mars being a 'suicide mission' because they couldn't get home.

The current idea is based off sending robots first to create/build fuel tanks and (ideally) water storage should water be found on mars.

Details can be found in a TIMES magazine from 2 weeks ago. Very interesting stuff.

My concern is that its just a bunch of politically nilly-willying. I'm down to pay more taxes and get it on, but I want the real deal, not some great hype.

Bablyon 5 ladies and gentlemen. I can't say when it will happen, but it WILL happen.

Oh, and in to response about opinions about fixing problems at home first...by that logic we shouldn't spend money on musuems, people shouldn't be allowed to waste money on mansions and private yachts, and Goverment offices should be run out of trailers.

You don't ignore problems, but you also don't let problems get in the way of progress...especially when said progress would help solve said problems.

Great minds think alike...at a speech in Iowa, given by Howard Dean, he said that he thinks sending a man to Mars was a great idea and that Bush should be the first one to go! :D

Mark </font>[/QUOTE]You mean the I Have A Scream speech? LOL [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

Agreed.

A huge amount of fuel is used in leaving the earths atmosphere. Leaving from the moon would negate that. A moon base would be a prereqisite for a Mars mission. It would be more relable than the space stations I'd imagine too.

Also, once an object has momentum in space, it can turn off the propulsion and maintain velocity, for there is nothing to slow down it's motion. No air etc. Once it hit the required speed, a ship could turn off the propulsion until a source of gravity came into effect.

Who thought people would walk on the moon? Live in Antarctica? Fly like a bird?

The sea is another frontier. Moving cities onto the water. Hovercrafts (that the military have owned for decades) or the new boat/car could make that a reality. Who knows what that would mean for Polynesia, Micronesia etc.

In many senses the idea is exciting. It's an unknown.

Why go there? Why did Europeans leave Europe? Why did humans move from Ethiopia or Iraq in the first place?

I shudder to think what dislocational issues people born on Mars would face though. It was wierd enough growing up in Australia, with so many Euro-centric cultural things like cold, winter christmas images, all reinforcing a "stranger in a strang land" kind of sensation.

Who knows what a Mars-born person would deal with. So many Anglo-Celtic Australians go back to Ireland or Great Britian to "find their roots". What would Marsians do?

And what would happen if they were taxed without representation? Would they have a tea party?

Hey come on bro ;) "Empty promises"? My salvation is threefold. Past present and future. The promises are very much being fulfilled and have been fulfilled in the past. It's not only about heaven or the afterlife, but largely about the NOW. The salvation takes effect immediately and manifests life and perceptional changes.

Nothing empty about those promises.

Good to see you anyway mate. Be safe. [img]smile.gif[/img]