The Exploration and Colonization of Mars: Why Mars? Why Humans?

[kevindavis007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzhSmnGcSkE

[kevindavis007]

Space Ping!


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[Cripplecreek]

Because of you don't intend to send humans, there is no point at all.

One human even confined to a 20 foot radius can do more and better science than every rover and orbiter combined.

[kevindavis007]

Because of you don't intend to send humans, there is no point at all.

One human even confined to a 20 foot radius can do more and better science than every rover and orbiter combined.

Exactly.. I remember the arguments with the anti Human in space crowd at the TOS. It seems the anti Human in space crowd want space as their personal playground at taxpayer expense.

[montanajoe]

I'm beginning to think Chinese, Russians or even Euro humans will get there before American humans....

[kevindavis007]

I'm beginning to think Chinese, Russians or even Euro humans will get there before American humans....

I don't know about the Euro, but I think the Chinese might get ahead. Russian they are too drunk to get to Mars. They couldn't get to the moon.

[Cripplecreek]

Exactly.. I remember the arguments with the anti Human in space crowd at the TOS. It seems the anti Human in space crowd want space as their personal playground at taxpayer expense.

Send humans with robots and drones to act as pack mules and scouts.

If you want to get a look over a hill or down the side of a cliff, an RC drone works wonders.

[kevindavis007]

Send humans with robots and drones to act as pack mules and scouts.

If you want to get a look over a hill or down the side of a cliff, an RC drone works wonders.

I don't mind that part. In fact a lot can get done with both humans and robots..

[Cripplecreek]

I don't mind that part. In fact a lot can get done with both humans and robots..

Robots don't have curiosity, suspicions, or gut feelings.  Lord knows how many human discoveries were made by guys thinking "Its probably nothing but I'm gonna check this out". Its the intuition and the simple desire to see what lies over the horizon. Robots don't have those things but they make great force multipliers.

[kevindavis007]

Robots don't have curiosity, suspicions, or gut feelings.  Lord knows how many human discoveries were made by guys thinking "Its probably nothing but I'm gonna check this out". Its the intuition and the simple desire to see what lies over the horizon. Robots don't have those things but they make great force multipliers.

 

[Joe Wooten]

I don't know about the Euro, but I think the Chinese might get ahead. Russian they are too drunk to get to Mars. They couldn't get to the moon.

I don't think the Chinese are going to get too far before their economy implodes. They have a way too big house of cards, worse than ours is, and a demographics problem that in the long term is worse than Japan's.

[Doug Loss]

Because of you don't intend to send humans, there is no point at all.

One human even confined to a 20 foot radius can do more and better science than every rover and orbiter combined.

Exactly.  Philosophically, the point of exploration and investigation (scientific and otherwise) is the extension of human knowledge and use of the environment around us, for the betterment of our societies and the stewardship of that environment.  Refusal to send humans is essentially turning your back on the raison d'etre for the whole exercise.

[Cripplecreek]

Exactly.  Philosophically, the point of exploration and investigation (scientific and otherwise) is the extension of human knowledge and use of the environment around us, for the betterment of our societies and the stewardship of that environment.  Refusal to send humans is essentially turning your back on the raison d'etre for the whole exercise.

I think NASA should follow a Lewis and Clark model of pathfinding, prospecting, and cataloguing as a means of charting a general path for others to follow.

[kevindavis007]

I don't think the Chinese are going to get too far before their economy implodes. They have a way too big house of cards, worse than ours is, and a demographics problem that in the long term is worse than Japan's.

True, plus the Russians are too drunk to do anything..

[Joe Wooten]

Our biggest problem is that the Apollo crash program style still has an unshakeable grip on the imagination of both the Political classes and the NASA bureaucrats. That is not the model we should be pursuing. Instead of a ultraheavy lift rocket, like the SLS,  shooting everything in one package, we should be using medium lift rockets of the Falcon 9 or Titan IV to put up fueling depots in LEO, then using the ISS as a terminal where ferries dock, discharge passengers, and they board dedicated deep space ship that will take them first to the lunar colonies, and then once we have built all the infrastructure and figured out how to survive long-term in space and on hostile planets using the moon, then off to Mars and the Belt. Once the infrastructure is built, everything will start happening quickly.

[Cripplecreek]

Our biggest problem is that the Apollo crash program style still has an unshakeable grip on the imagination of both the Political classes and the NASA bureaucrats. That is not the model we should be pursuing. Instead of a ultraheavy lift rocket, like the SLS,  shooting everything in one package, we should be using medium lift rockets of the Falcon 9 or Titan IV to put up fueling depots in LEO, then using the ISS as a terminal where ferries dock, discharge passengers, and they board dedicated deep space ship that will take them first to the lunar colonies, and then once we have built all the infrastructure and figured out how to survive long-term in space and on hostile planets using the moon, then off to Mars and the Belt. Once the infrastructure is built, everything will start happening quickly.

In my opinion we should have continued going to the moon and concentrated on building our second step to mars from there. Same kind of curve you're talking about without including the ISS which just isn't built for heavy traffic.