Sending Astronauts To Mars Would Be "Stupid", Says Astronaut Who Went To The Moon

[rangerrebew]

Sending Astronauts To Mars Would Be "Stupid", Says Astronaut Who Went To The Moon
 
By Katie Spalding
24 Dec 2018, 15:41

Space exploration sucks.

At least, that’s what certain astronauts will tell you. Not only will you puke the whole way to the Moon, you won't even enjoy it when you get there – apart from a tiny, contraband art gallery, the only sights you’re likely to see are “devastation”, “meteor craters”, and “no color at all, just different shades of grey,” according to Apollo 8 crewmember Frank Borman. Even the iconic flag is probably gone by now.

And now adding his voice to the list of space-age naysayers is Borman’s crewmate Bill Anders. In an interview for a BBC radio documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission, Anders described prospective crewed missions to Mars – which NASA plans to launch within the next couple of decades – as “stupid” and “almost ridiculous”.

https://www.iflscience.com/space/sending-astronauts-to-mars-would-be-stupid-says-astronaut-who-went-to-the-moon/

[bigheadfred]

Makes me wonder why he became an astronaut in the first place?

[Smokin Joe]

Makes me wonder why he became an astronaut in the first place?

For the 'tang....

[bigheadfred]

For the 'tang....

We still get it at Sam's Club once in a while.

Remember these?

[Gefn]

To boldly go where no one has gone before.

Come on now, don’t so many kids dream of being astronauts? I did!

[240B]

He is quoting history. That's what the majority of scientists say about every new invention or innovation. That's what they said about going to the moon. That's what they said about a computer that you can carry in your pocket (cellphone). That's what they said about the telephone and the internet. He may think that he is being insightful, and realistic, but the reality is that what he is saying is hackneyed and banal. His words have been said thousands of times before, by 'scientists' who were proven to be completely wrong.

The reason IBM never got into the PC business is because the board thought it was a silly idea. 'Nobody needs a computer in their home.' is a quote from IBM. The reason Kodak did not go into digital photography is because they thought it was just an anomaly, a fad that would pass quickly.

This guy may have been an astronaut, but what he is saying is just stupid. Especially considering all the progress of the last 50 years. Who knows what the next 50 years will bring? Of course we will go to Mars eventually. It is inevitable. It is only a matter of time. And the journey, as always, begins with the first attempt.

[rustynail]

All we need is a lightweight material that will block radiation.
What's the hold up?

[bigheadfred]

All we need is a lightweight material that will block radiation.
What's the hold up?

'They' are still wearing the sh*t.

[Oceander]

He is quoting history. That's what the majority of scientists say about every new invention or innovation. That's what they said about going to the moon. That's what they said about a computer that you can carry in your pocket (cellphone). That's what they said about the telephone and the internet. He may think that he is being insightful, and realistic, but the reality is that what he is saying is hackneyed and banal. His words have been said thousands of times before, by 'scientists' who were proven to be completely wrong.

The reason IBM never got into the PC business is because the board thought it was a silly idea. 'Nobody needs a computer in their home.' is a quote from IBM. The reason Kodak did not go into digital photography is because they thought it was just an anomaly, a fad that would pass quickly.

This guy may have been an astronaut, but what he is saying is just stupid. Especially considering all the progress of the last 50 years. Who knows what the next 50 years will bring? Of course we will go to Mars eventually. It is inevitable. It is only a matter of time. And the journey, as always, begins with the first attempt.

His statements are not in the same league with IBM on the personal computer.

[sneakypete]

Of course we will go to Mars eventually. It is inevitable. It is only a matter of time. And the journey, as always, begins with the first attempt.
 

@240B

Yup,if it can be done,it WILL be done,and there will be no shortage of volunteers.

[Smokin Joe]

We still get it at Sam's Club once in a while.

Remember these?

Oh, yeah.

[GtHawk]

For the 'tang....

Orange, Pootie or Poon?

[Smokin Joe]

Orange, Pootie or Poon?

I was hopin' someone would get that....

[Blizzardnh]

[thackney]

...The reason IBM never got into the PC business...

???

The birth of the IBM PC
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_birth.html

...On August 12, 1981, at a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York City, Estridge announced the IBM Personal Computer with a price tag of $1,565. Two decades earlier, an IBM computer often cost as much as $9 million and required an air-conditioned quarter-acre of space and a staff of 60 people to keep it fully loaded with instructions. The new IBM PC could not only process information faster than those earlier machines but it could hook up to the home TV set, play games, process text and harbor more words than a fat cookbook.

The $1,565 price bought a system unit, a keyboard and a color/graphics capability. Options included a display, a printer, two diskette drives, extra memory, communications, game adapter and application packages — including one for text processing. The development team referred to their creation as a mini-compact, at a mini-price, with IBM engineering under the hood.

The system unit was powered by an Intel 8088 microprocessor operating at speeds measured in millionths of a second. It was the size of a portable typewriter and contained 40K of read-only memory and 16K of user memory, as well as a built-in speaker for generating music. Its five expansion slots could be used to connect such features as expanded memory, display and printing units and game "paddles." The unit also ran self-diagnostic checks....



https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/ibm-pc-history-part-1/

[sneakypete]

???

The birth of the IBM PC
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_birth.html

...On August 12, 1981, at a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York City, Estridge announced the IBM Personal Computer with a price tag of $1,565. Two decades earlier, an IBM computer often cost as much as $9 million and required an air-conditioned quarter-acre of space and a staff of 60 people to keep it fully loaded with instructions. The new IBM PC could not only process information faster than those earlier machines but it could hook up to the home TV set, play games, process text and harbor more words than a fat cookbook.

 

I remember when I bought my first computer. Probably late 1980,and it had a 80 MB hard drive and 8 whole MB's of RAM. I was the envy of my friends. Of course nobody told me how complicated it was to install a modem,or that they didn't come with modems,so I had to drive back to town to buy a modem after calling the store and giving them hell for selling me a computer "that is broken and can't even connect to the internet".

Then I got back home and discovered the joys of figuring out modem initialization strings.

[Sighlass]

Stupid Nasa Moneypit project is all I can say about the notion of going to Mars.

[Smokin Joe]

Stupid Nasa Moneypit project is all I can say about the notion of going to Mars.

Yeah, just like the moon. We should spend that money taking care of our problems on Earth...

Oh, wait. We did that once and now have more problems than ever. We could have had colonies on the moon and Mars by now. Instead we got back door socialism, obamacare, and SJWs. At least during the Cold War we knew who our enemies were.

What's missing from our culture? A dream. When we had that frontier, that challenge, that great height to hope to reach, vicariously if not standing there, we were a greater, better people. Without it, with the decades of attacks on every principle that makes America great, we're becoming a rudderless mess, led off down the primrose paths to totalitarian (global) socialism. Freedom needs that dream, else why be free?
SO, as the walls of government surveillance, piddling legislation, and the masses clamoring for what you have--not by the sweat of their brow, but because you somehow owe it to them--as those walls close in, the dream of a better place, an 'other side of the hill' lies just over the horizon, just not here on Earth.

It is immeasurably important to keep that dream alive, to establish that foothold before humanity enters its next dark age.

[Axeslinger]

Yeah, just like the moon. We should spend that money taking care of our problems on Earth...

Oh, wait. We did that once and now have more problems than ever. We could have had colonies on the moon and Mars by now. Instead we got back door socialism, obamacare, and SJWs. At least during the Cold War we knew who our enemies were.

What's missing from our culture? A dream. When we had that frontier, that challenge, that great height to hope to reach, vicariously if not standing there, we were a greater, better people. Without it, with the decades of attacks on every principle that makes America great, we're becoming a rudderless mess, led off down the primrose paths to totalitarian (global) socialism. Freedom needs that dream, else why be free?
SO, as the walls of government surveillance, piddling legislation, and the masses clamoring for what you have--not by the sweat of their brow, but because you somehow owe it to them--as those walls close in, the dream of a better place, an 'other side of the hill' lies just over the horizon, just not here on Earth.

It is immeasurably important to keep that dream alive, to establish that foothold before humanity enters its next dark age.

@Smokin Joe
Brilliantly and beautifully said.

[bigheadfred]

But if we really try to send a rocket to Mars we really will poke a hole in the waters above that will drownded us all.

[Fishrrman]

Smokin' Joe wrote:
"What's missing from our culture? A dream. When we had that frontier, that challenge, that great height to hope to reach, vicariously if not standing there, we were a greater, better people."

Back when Kennedy proposed sending men to the moon, Americans still had those things you write about above -- along with a relative unity of culture with next-to-no "diversity" (with which we are plagued today).

T'ain't so no mo'.

Are you one of those folks who worries and complains about the debt and the deficit? What would such an endeavour -cost- ??

Humans may reach Mars someday.
But the first footsteps there probably won't be those of Americans...

[Smokin Joe]

Smokin' Joe wrote:
"What's missing from our culture? A dream. When we had that frontier, that challenge, that great height to hope to reach, vicariously if not standing there, we were a greater, better people."

Back when Kennedy proposed sending men to the moon, Americans still had those things you write about above -- along with a relative unity of culture with next-to-no "diversity" (with which we are plagued today).

T'ain't so no mo'.

Are you one of those folks who worries and complains about the debt and the deficit? What would such an endeavour -cost- ??

Humans may reach Mars someday.
But the first footsteps there probably won't be those of Americans...

Do I worry about the debt? Debt makes the world go around.
You are probably right about those first footsteps not being American. It'll be some multinational group (even corporate) that makes it happen. What I lament is all the money spent (created, borrowed, and spent) subsidizing the social problems that the Socialist (Democrat) Utopia was going to cure, making them all the more problems, instead of curing anything.

We coulda, shoulda been there by now.

[bigheadfred]

@Smokin Joe @Fishrrman

Take a step back and see what I see. I agree with the ideal of the dream. That Hope.

In reality, the first human to go to Mars won't be "natural" earthborn. Augmented through tech. Both biological and mechanical. And in that way, both psychological and...spiritually..augmented.

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe @Fishrrman

Take a step back and see what I see. I agree with the ideal of the dream. That Hope.

In reality, the first human to go to Mars won't be "natural" earthborn. Augmented through tech. Both biological and mechanical. And in that way, both psychological and...spiritually..augmented.

Had we used Von Braun's favored model to get to the Moon, (Space station first assemble ships in orbit and then step out) we'd probably have been there by now, with Lunar colonies, and likely someone would have found a way to make a profit there.
The demands of lunar construction may have led to some marvelous technologies which, in turn, would make Mars much cheaper to visit.
Lost opportunity abounds in the history of Space exploration.

Low gravity environments would cause physiological changes, enough so that the humans reared there likely would have a hard time with Earth Gravity. Those changes might be favorable for planetary exploration (or not). We just don't know.

[bigheadfred]

Had we used Von Braun's favored model to get to the Moon, (Space station first assemble ships in orbit and then step out) we'd probably have been there by now, with Lunar colonies, and likely someone would have found a way to make a profit there.
The demands of lunar construction may have led to some marvelous technologies which, in turn, would make Mars much cheaper to visit.
Lost opportunity abounds in the history of Space exploration.

Low gravity environments would cause physiological changes, enough so that the humans reared there likely would have a hard time with Earth Gravity. Those changes might be favorable for planetary exploration (or not). We just don't know.

I delve in to many of the topics posted by @Quix. Black budgets, secret space programs. When the U.S. govt. releases info regarding any aspect thereof, in my mind, they are far beyond that. Our govt. has done too much crap in proof for me to disregard or disbelieve "witness" statements. 

A simple example. Remember Tesla?

http://vizivtechnologies.com/