Science fiction or science fact?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc8804tkoaM
We should have been there already. Instead, we funded the poor. Now we have the fattest poor people, and more of them than ever.
One of my early 'flags' was from the Viking project. A fellow from NASA gave a talk on Viking, and as he popped the images of landforms up, understanding the different 'rules' for Mars, I had no trouble postulating how they formed. Unfortunately, Brown University decided my mathematics background wasn't enough and I didn't get the job...
The greatest obstacles to the project are and have been a combination of political and bureaucratic inertia, formed of the CYA mentality of government enclaves and the determination to protect the little fiefdoms of the current projects. After Apollo was cut short, and other ambitious programs nixed, no one wants to commit their professional future to a project which can be kicked out the airlock overnight for political expediency.
The danger in this mentality, and myriad other regulations concerning the sort of ordinary exploration, 'treasure hunting' for fossils, artifacts, and resources we were encouraged to find in my youth, is the discouragement of the sort of vision that leads humans to achieve great things; that discouragement applied from an early age. We no longer celebrate those who are the best and the brightest, we tell them to STFU or else, and quit disrupting the class. Stop upsetting the other students who don't have a clue what you are talking about. Peer pressure is ensured by no longer grouping the brightest students together so no one will be left behind. No tears are shed for those who are held back.
Aside from myriad ways to apply gadgetry, often for the most base reasons, we have made little real progress unless it is to use that same gadgetry to spy on and control the population here. Far from any 'utopia', this is ongoing repression masquerading as freedom. Which leads us to yet another 'problem' with Earth Governments funding Mars Missions with the eventual goal of establishing self sufficient colonies on Mars: Fear.
Those in those same governments fear the ignition of the dream in the masses of freedom. Sure, on Mars, that freedom would come at great risk and personal cost, but that freedom would eventually come from government by those who are millions of miles away, of necessity.
The very thought of such liberation there might well ignite a similar fire in the bellies of the masses here, who might awaken to the totalitarian repression even the most 'free' countries on Earth impose.
If people realized how little they actually need of bureaucratic oppression, what would be the result right here on Earth?
By contrast, any restrictions imposed on Mars would be of necessity. Solutions to problems would not be imposed unless the problems were real, and would not continue if they did not solve the problem, so unlike the political environment here. Potential unintended consequences would not only be scrutinized beforehand, but vigilantly anticipated during the implementation of any solution or the colony would fail, and that failure would mean the death of those there.
