Human Exploration of Mars

The Planetary Society Completes Grassroots Campaign in Support of
Human Exploration of Mars

November 26, 2003:

On November 10 of this year, The Planetary Society launched a
grassroots campaign aimed at the President of the United States with a
clear purpose in mind: to convince the President that sending humans
to Mars the should be NASA's primary goal in the coming decades.
Sixteen days and thousands of messages to the White House later, the
campaign has proved an unqualified success. We have been heard, and we
strongly believe that our position will help shape the President's
space policy.

The Society's grassroots campaign was planned to coincide with a
general review of space policy that is currently taking place in the
White House. Once the review is completed, the President is expected
to issue a directive to NASA, outlining the goals of the American
space program for the coming years. At this critical juncture, it was
crucial that the Society and its supporters raise their voices in
support of a strong commitment for the human exploration of Mars.

The Society's position was recently outlined in statements to Congress
by the Society's Chairman of the Board, Bruce Murray, and Society
President, Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. They urged that America's human
space flight program be drastically revised, and aimed at human
exploration beyond Earth orbit with the ultimate goal of establishing
a human outpost on Mars. The current shuttle-focused program has
shackled us to Earth orbit for more than 30 years, and promises to do
so for an additional two decades. Even the International Space Station
drifts aimlessly. A Mars directed program would change all that, by
providing a single unifying goal for human and robotic space ventures.
The Society advocates a national commitment to a progressive,
well-paced Mars human flight program, which can be accomplished within
realistic funding levels.

The call for a focused space program, aimed at placing humans on Mars,
was taken up by space enthusiasts around the world. Within three days
of the launch of the campaign, 1900 messages were faxed to the White
House in support of the Society's position. Overall, during the
campaign's duration, 2347 messages were faxed to the White House, 30
messages were e-mailed, and 277 messages were printed out and sent by
regular mail.

We thank all our friends and supporters who joined us in this critical
campaign to help shape the American space policy. The fight, however,
is by no means over. As the debate over the future of space
exploration rages in Washington, Europe, and around the world, we may
again be called upon to speak out for a higher vision of humans in
space. Be sure to check The Planetary Society's website,
http://planetary.org, for future campaigns. Working together, we may
yet see the first humans on Mars in our lifetime.

On 30 Nov 2003 02:08:55 -0800, (Abdul Ahad)
wrote:

The Planetary Society Completes Grassroots Campaign in Support of
Human Exploration of Mars

November 26, 2003:

On November 10 of this year, The Planetary Society launched a
grassroots campaign aimed at the President of the United States with a
clear purpose in mind: to convince the President that sending humans
to Mars the should be NASA's primary goal in the coming decades.
Sixteen days and thousands of messages to the White House later, the
campaign has proved an unqualified success. We have been heard, and we
strongly believe that our position will help shape the President's
space policy.

The Society's grassroots campaign was planned to coincide with a
general review of space policy that is currently taking place in the
White House. Once the review is completed, the President is expected
to issue a directive to NASA, outlining the goals of the American
space program for the coming years. At this critical juncture, it was
crucial that the Society and its supporters raise their voices in
support of a strong commitment for the human exploration of Mars.

The Society's position was recently outlined in statements to Congress
by the Society's Chairman of the Board, Bruce Murray, and Society
President, Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. They urged that America's human
space flight program be drastically revised, and aimed at human
exploration beyond Earth orbit with the ultimate goal of establishing
a human outpost on Mars. The current shuttle-focused program has
shackled us to Earth orbit for more than 30 years, and promises to do
so for an additional two decades. Even the International Space Station
drifts aimlessly. A Mars directed program would change all that, by
providing a single unifying goal for human and robotic space ventures.
The Society advocates a national commitment to a progressive,
well-paced Mars human flight program, which can be accomplished within
realistic funding levels.

The call for a focused space program, aimed at placing humans on Mars,
was taken up by space enthusiasts around the world. Within three days
of the launch of the campaign, 1900 messages were faxed to the White
House in support of the Society's position. Overall, during the
campaign's duration, 2347 messages were faxed to the White House, 30
messages were e-mailed, and 277 messages were printed out and sent by
regular mail.

We thank all our friends and supporters who joined us in this critical
campaign to help shape the American space policy. The fight, however,
is by no means over. As the debate over the future of space
exploration rages in Washington, Europe, and around the world, we may
again be called upon to speak out for a higher vision of humans in
space. Be sure to check The Planetary Society's website,
http://planetary.org, for future campaigns. Working together, we may
yet see the first humans on Mars in our lifetime.

That should comfort American's who are worried their jobs may go to
China that their tax dollars are paying to go to Mars.



Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kites rise highest against
the wind - not with it."
Winston Churchill

That should comfort American's who are worried their jobs may go to
China that their tax dollars are paying to go to Mars.



Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kites rise highest against
the wind - not with it."
Winston Churchill

There are very few voices out there advocating manned Mars missions,
so I reckon the Planetary Society deserves some credit for the
important effort that it makes on behalf of its 100,000+ members who
represent the world's largest private spaceflight interest
enthusiasts.
Let's face it, without societies like the Mars Society and Planetary
Society keeping pressure on congress for decent future goals like
Mars, I think the US space program will continue drifting aimlessly
for a great many more years to come.
My generation was too young to see men on the Moon and it will be nice
to see people on Mars, soon. Dreams!
AA

On 1 Dec 2003 08:07:53 -0800, (Abdul Ahad)
wrote:


That should comfort American's who are worried their jobs may go to
China that their tax dollars are paying to go to Mars.



Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kites rise highest against
the wind - not with it."
Winston Churchill

There are very few voices out there advocating manned Mars missions,
so I reckon the Planetary Society deserves some credit for the
important effort that it makes on behalf of its 100,000+ members who
represent the world's largest private spaceflight interest
enthusiasts.

Free enterprise has powered human endevour through the ages, it's
about time the 'Planetary Society' displayed some American
capitalistic drive to reach it's goal.

Let's face it, without societies like the Mars Society and Planetary
Society keeping pressure on congress for decent future goals like
Mars, I think the US space program will continue drifting aimlessly
for a great many more years to come.

The US space program needs to reinvent itself and not just provide
employment to 20,000 pen pushers, and rely a $14 billion umbilical
cord full of public money.

My generation was too young to see men on the Moon and it will be nice
to see people on Mars, soon. Dreams!

So build you're own spacecraft and go to Mars as a private mission
then.


Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Kites rise highest against
the wind - not with it."
Winston Churchill

Mars is certainly doable; though spendy.

For a few hundred billions and perhaps another spendy decade in
between (spendy in terms of human life), Mars is certainly offering a
host of grand opportunities, especially for infecting Earth with
killer microbes.

As whatever the dry-ice doesn't get the TBI should finish off whomever
sets foot on Mars, then said dry-ice will thankfully kick back in
order to preserve those Mars microbe infected bodies (so far this
sounds perfectly fine and dandy).

On the other hand, if those Cathar lizard folk of Venus will permit
their souls to being exposed to yet another Earthly devil, at least
we'd better not be Catholic at the time we set our hot foot on Venus,
as it could be a trap, an ambush of sorts, sort of a reverse Apollo
ruse/sting that's essentially a one-way meal ticket.

Here's a little something other about Venus, regarding their fleet of
rigid airships and/or of what perhaps we could do if push comes down
to shove, as we could somewhat narrow this rigid airship gap, possibly
even creating a hybrid shuttle/airship of which hopefully they don't
have just yet. Also a little more pertaining to the utilization of
good old basalt that a few too many Earthly folks don't seem to have a
freaking clue about.

http://guthvenus.tripod.com/airship-01.htm
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-basalt.htm

A lunar basalt composite application, besides the LSE-CM/ISS tether;
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-lm-1.htm
http://guthvenus.tripod.com/gv-cm-ccm-01.htm

"Abdul Ahad" wrote in message
om...
The Planetary Society Completes Grassroots Campaign in Support of
Human Exploration of Mars

November 26, 2003:

On November 10 of this year, The Planetary Society launched a
grassroots campaign aimed at the President of the United States with a
clear purpose in mind: to convince the President that sending humans
to Mars the should be NASA's primary goal in the coming decades.


okay, my head is spinning here. Twenty years ago when I was a member, the PS
(or more specifically, Carl Sagan) was hell-bent and determined to keep
humanity's dirty little bootprints off of the universe.

What's happened in the meantime, or are they still that way and this is some
kind of reverse-psychology thing?

--
Terrell Miller


"Very often, a 'free' feedstock will still lead to a very expensive system.
One that is quite likely noncompetitive"
- Don Lancaster

In article ,
Terrell Miller wrote:
okay, my head is spinning here. Twenty years ago when I was a member, the PS
(or more specifically, Carl Sagan) was hell-bent and determined to keep
humanity's dirty little bootprints off of the universe.
What's happened in the meantime...?

Chairman Carl had a new revelation, and decided that a joint US-Soviet
Mars mission was the way to reduce world tensions and save mankind from
itself (or at least, it was a step in the right direction). So now the
Planetary Society was officially in favor of manned Mars exploration,
except that it *had* to be a US-Soviet joint effort -- no other approaches
need apply.

A few of the keep-space-for-robots folks left in disgust, but most of the
faithful stayed.

And that official goal in turn has mutated gradually, as mankind turned
out not to need saving (this time, anyway), and as the "joint effort" part
has stopped looking like such a great idea.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |

Free enterprise has powered human endevour through the ages, it's
about time the 'Planetary Society' displayed some American
capitalistic drive to reach it's goal.

Capitalism has looked at space and can't find the money stream -
because there isn't one.

That should comfort American's who are worried their jobs may go to
China that their tax dollars are paying to go to Mars.

Any tax $ spent on the space program in essence comes back to the country by
paying for thousands of engineering and aerospace (and management scum) jobs

Doug

Terrell Miller wrote:

"Abdul Ahad" wrote in message
om...
The Planetary Society Completes Grassroots Campaign in Support of
Human Exploration of Mars

November 26, 2003:

On November 10 of this year, The Planetary Society launched a
grassroots campaign aimed at the President of the United States with a
clear purpose in mind: to convince the President that sending humans
to Mars the should be NASA's primary goal in the coming decades.

okay, my head is spinning here. Twenty years ago when I was a member, the PS
(or more specifically, Carl Sagan) was hell-bent and determined to keep
humanity's dirty little bootprints off of the universe.

What's happened in the meantime, or are they still that way and this is some
kind of reverse-psychology thing?

Well, if you don't pay attention to societies that you don't like because
of ideological reasons then you may miss a few things.

Such as Carl Sagan actually changing his mind before he died.

The Planetary Society never was a united body against manned
space flight. It has been exploration oriented and a lot of there
effort has been toward robot deep-space operations. They
definitely fight for these type of missions.

The Planetary Society is one of the most effective private
space operations around and has been a positive force
for years.

If you want a reference to a scientest who has never changed his
mind about there being no need for any manned space flight I
will mention James Van Allen.

Mike Walsh