What is Digg?288 Comments
- allengeer, on 04/08/2008, -1/+39"We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." -JFK.
If a politician will lead the people to the promise land, a land where man is no longer judged by their race and social status... but as a single entity together exploring the space and nature which they exist... then yes... the public of the entire planet will support the travel. Space is not for countries to explore. Space is for man to explore. - take2, on 04/08/2008, -11/+42The time horizon, seems about right; 2031 for our first landing. Humans do need to expand beyond this planet. Expansion/Exploration has historically brought peril, danger, death and exploitation. But if we never explored and expanded as a species, we'd still be small ape like creatures living in southern Africa.
Exploration and expansion of territory has benefited mankind tremendously throughout our history. Expansion has also lead to many instances where the impact on whole civilizations was disastrous. But as a whole, it has benefited all of us and expanding our footprint to another planet is as natural as animals crossing a land bridge across the Arctic to reach a new world. - Aard88, on 04/08/2008, -1/+26Where did this blog site give notice that it was copying verbatim the 60 Minutes script from Sunday night? Gotta call Plagiarism on this one.
- trollick, on 04/08/2008, -1/+26Put a man on Mars? Yeah, right. I cannot even ***** submit my vote on Digg half of the time. Man on Mars my ass.
- ThetaDot, on 04/08/2008, -3/+25I have no doubt we are capable -- intelligence is never an obstacle. The problem comes in giving the right people what they need to accomplish it, and letting them be brilliant out of a spotlight or between barking politicians.
- Bukowsky, on 04/08/2008, -5/+22Good questions that arise from the article - "Will we see human settlements on Mars? Or is it all just a dream? Will the American public even support traveling to places humans can barely imagine?"
- s810, on 04/08/2008, -5/+20Going there helps solve problems here, the return on the investment has always proven to be well worth it. For instance; do you have any idea how many other countries are actively trying to form lunar programs in order to get mineral resources off the moon? The Moon could be a stepping stone to Mars, Lets channel that money back into space exploration and make some jobs for America for a change.
- 10lbhammer, on 04/08/2008, -4/+17whoa, calm down there tiger!
- Chaoticfist, on 04/08/2008, -2/+14How is planning to one day in the future colonize and explore mars stupid. Mars could be the future home on humanity should something ever happen to our little blue world. As well there are vast amounts of natural resources on Mars that we could use. Also consider that having Mars and lunar bases would be a good stepping stone to exploring the rest of the solar system. So my advice to you is grow the ***** up and try and realize why the majority of your comments seem to get dugg down into oblivion.
- Latimer, on 04/08/2008, -1/+13This article seems really familiar. I swear we had a front page article here a few days ago that this was ripped from....
- santiago1, on 04/08/2008, -3/+14 I'd like to be the first to step forward and volunteer!
- rderveloy, on 04/08/2008, -0/+11"We have plenty of problems to solve down here. Let's channel that money to more earthly pursuits. Begin hate-filled comments directed toward meee.... Now!"
You do realize that for every tax dollar spent, NASA only gets about 0.15 cents per day, right? NASA's budget is insignificant compared to the nearly all other federally funded programs. It's almost a miracle that they can do anything at all!
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget#NASA.27s_ ...
Yes we have lots of problems down here, but with all the money we've been spending in Iraq, we could have had THIRTY-TWO (32) made-from-scratch mars programs:
"According to the JEC Report, “War at Any Price?”, as reported at the Democratic Caucus's Senate Journal, the Iraq war will cost 1.3 Trillion Dollars by 2008. [note 1] This translates to thirty-two (32) fully manned missions to Mars! (see previous article for Mars costs) Please note that the estimated cost of the mission to Mars was based on "doing everything from scratch" costs, which would certainly not be the case if we went there multiple times."
(Source: http://www.burtonmackenzie.com/2007/11/new-data-us ...
From previous article:
"If the original Mars estimate [of $40 billion to $80 billion]* was accurate, that means that instead of going to Iraq, the USA could have funded somewhere between 5 and 11 independent human missions to Mars! By "independent", I mean Mars mission programs that start from the ground up, and do not leverage each other's technology, research, or manufacturing. In reality, it would be much more likely that technology advances would be shared, as well as NRE costs, lowering the mission costs for all involved. That is, many many more than 11 missions could have been sent."
*Added for clarity.
(Source: http://www.burtonmackenzie.com/2007/09/instead-of- ...
The question is why can't we do both? That, and why do *some* people never research their stance on a subject before taking a position on it? - fakekevinrose, on 04/08/2008, -3/+14This is mission is much bigger than your awful short sighted vision of an expensive "publicity stunt" you dopey bastard. This is much bigger than just planting a flag, which is apparently all you can think we're going to do when we get to mars. This is about inspiring a generation of scientists the world over, this is about expanding the human reach is the cosmic dark ocean, this is about scientific discovery from a whole new world of mysteries waiting to be solved. We need more visionaries, not bureaucratic ***** like yourself who consider the cost of money over scientific exploration.
- inactive, on 04/08/2008, -0/+10I wish I could digg you up without reloading the page :(
- AlienClown, on 04/08/2008, -2/+12I remember my 4th grade science teacher telling me "when your in your twenties we will be talking about going to mars and you can only go if you keep your grades up." I guess i'll have to settle for the space elevators in 50 years.
- TheJuggernaut, on 04/08/2008, -0/+9...get your ass to Mars.
- allengeer, on 04/08/2008, -4/+13congratulations on being dumb and uninformed.
To say the US doesnt have the right stuff and discount the fact that they have had 6 manned moon missions, landers on a Comet, two planets, and the moon of a large planet, 3 working rovers on another planet, orbiters around 2 planets currently, satellites in the heliosheath?!!?! AND YOU THINK THAT CHINA HAS THE RIGHT STUFF AND NASA DOES NOT? YOU ARE ***** OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!!!
Seriously. Quit. Being. So. Stupid. - egoherodotus, on 04/08/2008, -0/+9THE CHINAMAN IS NOT THE ISSUE, DUDE!
- 10lbhammer, on 04/08/2008, -0/+8a quick look through your comment history shows nothing but insults with an average digg of somewhere around -20...
why don't you go ***** *yourself*, troll. - WinterWolf33, on 04/08/2008, -0/+8We would like to think sometimes that the earth has unlimited resources and can sustain human life forever.
- allengeer, on 04/08/2008, -0/+7These are actually NASA funded projects only. Im telling you why you are wrong. You are very wrong. Sure there has been collaboration with the world science community. That is not at dispute. Your initial comment states " the space program has been a failure since the fall of the Soviet Union" where it clearly has not.
This is not an argument about the world hating america. This is an argument about the success of NASA (America's Space Program) and how you think it hasnt done anything (which is wrong).
Arrogance is defined as:Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance.
And it is true. I have overwhelming pride in the accomplishments of NASA. I think all mankind should have an overwhelming amount of pride towards NASA accomplishments for they are truely the most amazing things that mankind has ever done. And I get overwhelmingly pissed off when uninformed idiots such as yourself spout grossly false statements about the accomplishments of one of the most amazing scientific bodies in human history.
If you go over to a man's house and you tell him that his children are ugly, ill bred, his decoration is worthless, and everything he's dedicated his life to is nothing... when in fact his children are super models, nobel prize laureats, polite as can be, his decoration applauded by the community of designers, and he himself a decorated and effective scientist... then yea hes going to be arrogant when he tells you how full of ***** you are. No matter what nationality he is. - MacEnvy, on 04/08/2008, -1/+8"Chinaman"?
Did I just travel back in time to 1910? Where are all the horses? - Railz, on 04/08/2008, -0/+7I bet you don't work at NASA.
- yournamehere, on 04/08/2008, -0/+6not to play up war or anything but during war time is when most technological jumps are made. It's one of the few things we gain from war.
- ravage86, on 04/08/2008, -3/+9Yes, why spend all that money on a field trip to Mars when we could give it to politicians using war as a proxy.
- allengeer, on 04/08/2008, -1/+7Seriously? IN THE LAST 20 YEARS? ARE YOU ***** KIDDING ME?!
In the last 20 years NASA has completed:
*Galileo conducted the first asteroid flyby, discovered the first asteroid moon, was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, and launched the first probe into Jupiter's atmosphere.
*Cassini is the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn and the fourth to visit Saturn.
*Huygens Probe separated from the Cassini orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 near the Xanadu region. It touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. Even though it was never officially designated a lander, the probe continued to send data for about 90 minutes after reaching the surface
*Mars Pathfinder This mission to Mars, besides being the first of a series of missions to Mars that included rovers (robotic exploration vehicles), was the most important since the Vikings landed on the red planet (.A.K.A. Mars) in 1976, and also was the first mission to send a rover to a planet.
*The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was a US spacecraft developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States's return to Mars after a 20-year absence. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when it lost contact with NASA in November 2006.
*2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. Its mission is to use spectrometers and imagers to hunt for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on Mars. It is hoped that the data Odyssey obtains will help answer the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Mars Explorations Rovers and Earth.
*NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of two rovers — Spirit and Opportunity — to explore the Martian surface and geology. Nearly 5 YEARS of exploring the surface of mars!?!?!?!?!?
*NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit.
*Deep Space 1 is a spacecraft launched on 24 October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium program. Its primary goal was the testing of technologies to lower the cost and risk of future missions. It was followed by the Deep Space 2 probe, which was launched in January 1999, and was intended to impact the surface of Mars.
*Stardust is an American interplanetary spacecraft, whose primary purpose was to investigate the makeup of the comet Wild 2 and its coma. It was launched on February 7, 1999 by NASA, travelled nearly 3 billion miles (5·109 km), and returned to Earth on January 15, 2006 to release a sample material capsule.[1] It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth. On July 3, 2007 a second mission was approved to revisit the comet Tempel 1.
*Deep Impact is an ongoing NASA space probe launched on January 12, 2005 that was designed to study the composition of the interior of the comet 9P/Tempel (old-style name "P/Tempel 1") by colliding a section of the spacecraft into the comet. At 5:52 UTC on July 4, 2005, the impactor of the Deep Impact probe successfully impacted the comet's nucleus, excavating debris from the interior of the nucleus. Photographs of the impact showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than expected. The impact generated a large, bright dust cloud that obscured the hoped-for view of the impact crater.
*The Hubble Space Telescope (HST; also known colloquially as "the Hubble" or just "Hubble") is a space telescope that was carried into Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle in April 1990. It is named for the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. The HST is part of NASA's Great Observatories series, with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope,[3] and is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency. Although Hubble was not the first space telescope, it is one of the largest and most versatile, and well known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy.
*As of April 4, 2007, Voyager 1 is over 15.18 terameters (15.18×1012 meters, or 15.18×109 km, 101.4 AU, or 9.4 billion miles) from the Sun, and has thus entered the heliosheath, the termination shock region between the solar system and interstellar space, a vast area where the Sun's influence gives way to the other bodies in the galaxy.
As of September 2006, Voyager 2 is at a distance of around 80.5 AU (approximately 12 terameters) from the Sun, deep in the scattered disc, and traveling outward at roughly 3.3 AU a year. It is more than twice the distance from the Sun as Pluto. On December 10, 2007, instruments on board Voyager 2 sent data back to Earth indicating that the Solar System is asymmetrical (i.e., bent). It has reached the termination shock, about 10 billion miles from where Voyager 1 first crossed.
I mean for 20 years, thats a pretty ***** impressive list of things to do. What have you done in the last 20 years?
Seriously. Quit. Being. Such. A. Stupid. Blinded. *****. And. Research. Something. Before. You. Open. Your. Stupid. Idiot. *****. Mouth. And. Spew. Utter. Unresearched. Nonsense. From. It. You. *****. Scourge. To. Humanity. - allengeer, on 04/08/2008, -2/+8Your conjecture is ludicrous. An economy is based of natural resources and talent. America has quite a bit of both. It may decline from where it is right now, but it will not in the near future be a "dirt poor banana republic"
- topcat5, on 04/08/2008, -3/+9America spent a decade and billions of dollars learning how to go to the moon and successfully did so. So what happens? They scrap all of it, laid off the people who engineered it and promptly forgot about it for the next 35 years. So we are starting again from scratch except this time we don't have the skills nor the technical/industrial base to do it. When was the last time you saw something that said "Made in the USA". Huge difference from the 60s. Maybe they can ask China and India for help. Oh yeah, by 2031 Nasa will be outsourced too.
- SpaceMonkeyZero, on 04/08/2008, -0/+6Gloogle says: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
- Thundercat1971, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5Something not mentioned in the article, NASA needs to make sure that once the astronauts reach the surface, Tom Sizemore isn't eaten by space bugs.
- SpaceMonkeyZero, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5No country will exist "as we know it today". No country is caught in a timewarp, they all change for the better or worse. None stay the exact same.
- rderveloy, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6Give me a break.
The government spends more money on defense than the rest of the world combined. NASA's current budget is roughly 15 cents per day. For every tax dollar spent, NASA roughly gets 1/10th of 1 cent.
http://www.burtonmackenzie.com/2007/11/new-data-us ... - ravage86, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6naquadah?
- avengingturnip, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5Getting them there is less than half the problem. Keeping them alive and getting them back is much harder.
- Blandyman, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5I went there once. I didn't like any of the clothes :/
- ryleyleckie, on 04/10/2008, -0/+52030 is not soon enough.
- relic180, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6Not to mention the development of new technologies that don't currently exist that will allow humans to develop colonies on non-terrestrial bodies and live in hostile climates for 18-24 months or more. OhFrak is a dick.
- robinthehood, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6this was covered brilliantly by the recent TV show "Mission to Mars". Basically, one of the main obstacles right now is that this mission would be a one-way trip. Unfortunately society has gotten to a point where it's afraid to take risks. I would happily volunteer for a 1 way trip to Mars knowing I may very well never see Earth again.
Sadly though, it won't happen. Humans have become risk avoiding pussies. - localzuk, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5I was thinking the exact same thing. A major case of deja vu.
- zephyear, on 04/08/2008, -1/+6yeah but it's ***** cool, *****.
- JoeRockEHF, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5I know a lot of the people won't justify us spending so much for something so far away when we have pressing issues here. But I believe this is necessary thing to do for our future.
- a6n28f, on 04/08/2008, -2/+7Yes. Yang Liwei in the Shenzhou 5.
- Trublmakr, on 04/08/2008, -0/+5We'd be a lot further along if we made it a priority instead of pissing money away in the middle east.
- TheDHC, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4ohfrak, don't take it so personal. i'm sure there's nothing wrong with being a bureaucratic ***** like yourself. don't you have some budget forms to fill out?
- catachip, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4I work in a NASA-funded laboratory in the U.S. We study the effects of zero gravity and space radiation on bone. Astronauts lose 10 times more bone per month than a post-menopausal woman, or about 1-2% per month. This puts them at very high risk for bone fractures - which is devastating enough on Earth (25% of people die within a year of a hip fracture), but, would be catastrophic in space so far from Earth. You need to treat astronauts with osteoporosis drugs to prevent this bone loss, but, there are numerous side effects. There are many, many other physiological problems associated with extended exposure to the space environment.
Right now, we have limited experience in space. Most of it involves 6-8 month stays on the International Space Station, which is still shielded from a lot of space flight radiation due to its low orbit. A mission to Mars would take 24-36 months. About 9 months inbound transit, a year for the Earth and Mars to realign (spent on the surface or in Mars orbit), then another 9 months back. This is far, far beyond anything we have experience with.
The current NASA roadmap wont even see humans back to the Moon until the early '20s, and that is under the most ideal funding and engineering conditions. A martian mission wont occur without more funding, and even then, to do it safely, we're looking at 30-40 years out. - drgreenberg, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4At least one plan has the ship separating into two pieces: the main crew compartment and other portions of the ship that act as a counterweight, with the pieces tied with a tether. Would look like a barbell of sorts. They would then start revolving around their center of mass to produce gravity.
- mithrasinvictus, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4Considering the resources put into it that is not very surprising. Another way to put it is that we are too reluctant to allocate funds to research in peace time.
Also, safety is less of an issue during war time. - inactive, on 04/08/2008, -6/+10I don't see this happening in my lifetime and I'm 24. I'd say around 2070 and only because war will seriously halt humankind progress.
- AdamaObama, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4Well, what I always thought was that we should build a base on the Moon first. Then we can set our sights on Mars. Though, something we could start researching now is terraforming Mars.
- rderveloy, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4Sorry, the edit timer ran out before I could fix the last two links.
Here they are:
http://www.burtonmackenzie.com/2007/11/new-data-us ...
http://www.burtonmackenzie.com/2007/09/instead-of- ... -
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