"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
Pat Flannery wrote:

Matt Wiser wrote:If you are going to Mars, lunar
missions to test spacesuits, crewed rovers, exploration gear, habitats,
would be necessary.

Not necessarily, not only did we develop the Apollo suits and rovers
here on Earth, but conditions on Mars, which has a thin atmosphere and
higher surface gravity than the Moon, may make lunar tests
nonrepresentational.

A moon base for a Mars mission is kind of like Apollo 8 was to the
lunar landing mission - while not representational, valuable in
building an experience base.

Yes, but how much operational experience was gained vs. PR value?

I'd say that the driving force really was PR value, though the operation
experience was fairly valuable also.



D.
--
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http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL



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Greg Moore
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