Should we go to Mars when.....

theFijian said:

The award for biggest LOL of the day goes to...

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My home church is a strong missionary church.
I've never been in favor of the cause.
It's not like there are no unsaved on my own city block.

crawfish said:

I don't believe it's in human nature to truly improve things when we focus inward. Our biggest, best ideas have come out of the desire for expansion. Getting a manned mission to Mars will be incredibly hard, and we may not see direct benefits from Mars itself for a century. But the technology that will have to be developed to accomplish it will no doubt aid mankind.

We simply cannot look at manned spaceflight as something that should bring direct profits within our lifetimes or even our children's lifetimes. It is a start down the long path that will eventually allow mankind to leave this planet and colonize other worlds. As long as that is viewed as impossible, it will be.

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I think/know it's entirely possible. And it's not hard.
We already know how to travel in space, set up camp, and exist until supplies are exhausted.

Just expensive with no return for the effort.
Like cash for clunkers.
Do I doubt it will aid mankind?
Yes. Exactly my point.
You must understand my point of view if you want it to work.

I don't give a rip about Mars, and will fight any efforts to spend my money on it.

So...you loose. The odds are low that the effort will return anything at all.
At least, if we didn't already know better, we could imagine meeting martians. But we do know better.

crawfish said:

and sexy blue alien women?

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SkyWriting said:

I think/know it's entirely possible. And it's not hard.
We already know how to travel in space, set up camp, and exist until supplies are exhausted.

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You are overestimating what we are capable of. It is NOT like camping in the woods. Right now, there are hundreds of barriers to long-term spaceflight, and all of them will have to be resolved before we can reasonably expect to make the trip. Solving those problems will aid in the future of mankind. For instance:

1) At this time, food cannot be made that lasts for the time period it would require without taking far too much space (the spacecraft cannot be too large). Creating ways to store healthy food that retains its tastiness for long periods of time will not only aid the space program, but will revolutionize the food industry as we know it and aid in feeding the world.

2) The energy required by this trip is enormous, and enough fuel to travel to Mars, land and return would take a huge amount of storage space and pose a large safety hazard. Some new way to provide energy must be found. More efficient solar panels, for instance. Energy is a worldwide problem and efficient forms of renewable production could change the energy industry across the planet.

3) Over time, the air will become stale. We need better ways of cleaning and converting oxygen.

4) The earth's atmosphere protects us from a vast amount of radiation. Inventing ways to deal with this will create new industries.

And on and on. The great thing - these jobs will be created in the U.S. There will be new industries, new opportunities, new innovations.

Yes, it will be expensive, but in the end, it will be worth every single penny we put into it.

Do I doubt it will aid mankind?
Yes. Exactly my point.
You must understand my point of view if you want it to work.

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I understand your point of view. I just don't agree with it at all. Your mindset will have the U.S. slowly degrading into meaninglessness.

I don't give a rip about Mars, and will fight any efforts to spend my money on it.

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And I will support all efforts to spend your money on it. And mine as well.

So...you loose. The odds are low that the effort will return anything at all.
At least, if we didn't already know better, we could imagine meeting martians. But we do know better.

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Fortunately, there are people with foresight and knowledge who will do the right thing regardless of people like you. Mars is worth the effort - even more worth the effort if there are no Martians. Game, set and match.

I think expanding our knowledge and what we gain from it is good. As mentioned, though I think only looked one directionally, all the technology into making a manned trip to mars would benefit us over time, but at the same time it's a stepping stone, once we start to explore the solar system, and look into ways for prophit and expansion, we can start looking into mining asteroids, or other planets, discovery new things.

To explore beyond our solar system, we need to first make the next few steps, and it's not just about as my mom said, "We have alot here still to explore, why space." because there are those that want to explore the earth, and those that want to explore space. If we take the time to move in multiple directions we gain knowledge from them all rather then focusing on a few small ones.

Frankly I'm a bit excited that there ARE manned missions to mars planned and such, and we have probes going to explore the marsian surface, and Europa, and that other moon where could be signs of life, or some unknown reaction on it. But all of these things are like 10-30 years just to even start, next big thing I'm waiting for is the flyby of Pluto in about 5 years. We've grown so much in many ways, but our exploration and space stuff is so slow in comparison.

crawfish said:

and sexy blue alien women?

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Wouldn't we be the aliens?

Assyrian said:

Wouldn't we be the aliens?

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Stop blocking my Kirk fantasies.

crawfish said:

Stop blocking my Kirk fantasies.

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"B ... but they're women of color!"

Assyrian said:

Wouldn't we be the aliens?

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And the Martians would be the Horde.

shernren said:

And the Martians would be the Horde.

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Enjoying Starcraft II?