Skip the Preliminaries - Go for the Whole Shootin' Match

Nomen Nescio wrote:


In the movie, When Worlds Collide, we went from nothing to an
interplanetary rocket ship in one quick project in less than a year.
That's the way it should be here and now.

That's because IT'S FICTION, nimrod!

Paul

Paul F. Dietz wrote:


That's because IT'S FICTION, nimrod!



Remember that over-the-top "When The Sun Dies" speech from Babylon 5?:
"Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million
years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens,
it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu, Einstein,
Morobuto, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes .. and all of this .. all of this
was for nothing unless we go to the stars."
I keep seeing this calendar:
"1,825,387,238,312 days to Red Giant!
Waste anything but time!" :-)

Pat

The public would give you different answers depending on the question. If
you asked if it was OK to use people to test the system, and there was no
doubt many would be lost, no way would you get them to say yes. Its a bit
like wars, nobody mentions the casualties until they start.

Brian

--

Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
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"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
...
We are wasting men and resources fooling around in low Earth orbit. Even
a
die-hard space enthusiast can't get excited anymore when we shoot men up
250 miles and watch them go 'round and 'round. Sorry, but its the truth.

In the movie, When Worlds Collide, we went from nothing to an
interplanetary rocket ship in one quick project in less than a year.
That's the way it should be here and now.

We should drop everything and start building a Mars Rocket to take men
there to establish a new colony. If we fail and lose a few rockets before
we achieve success, its absolutely no worse than what we're doing now,
losing a few Space Shuttles now and then. The difference is the payoff.

Mars is a big payoff and will restore our prowness in the eyes of the
whole
world. We cannot get that benefit with Shuttles, the ISS, or even another
Moon Shot. I say we have a nation-wide referendum and vote on my proposal
in an exercise in pure democracy. Its what the President would want, I'm
sure.

Its doable and doable with off-the-shelf technology, so what are we
waiting
for?

Nomen Nescio wrote:
Mars is a big payoff

Why? How would a one-off PR trip to Mars benefit us any more than a
one-off (OK, six-off) PR trip to the moon did?

With hindsight, Apollo was probably actively harmful to space
exploration by eliminating one of the easiest and most compelling goals
in space without creating any long-term infrastructure that would help
us stay there. I don't see a PR trip to Mars being much better.
Mark