..........Well friends I have just formed a Brand New ....NON Profit foundation called......SPAM......It stands for....the Society (for) Preserving Alieniated Martians. So, If they happen to find any Green, short , web-footed , Big eared , long armed , Basket ball playing Martians on the Red Planet we will be ready to feed and clothe them until they can find an Agent and a Condo in LA. Anybody want to Donate.......Dono is the Official keeper of the Funds......and all the free cheese he has room for in his Fridge!!!....s.kuteman

 

Remember that when the big rock is coming down, and the rest of us are on the moon or Mars.

Read my rant at the top of this page if you want to know where our BS&T is REALLY being pissed away.

 

I suggest everyone here read the books Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars for a good look at what terraforming can do. We have some of the technology now and more will come as a result of exploration. Turning Mars into something other than a dead rock is not as far-fetched as some might believe.

 

Remember that $800 Million was spent right here on Earth providing jobs and work for Americans. None of it was spent on Mars. The space program has paid for itself so many times over that it is considered to be the best investment of funds the taxpayer ever got. That computer that you are typing on would not exist if it hadn't been for the space program, or at best you might be typing on an old/new C64 or Apple II...

The technology exists to live on the Moon now. Habitat, energy conversion, O2/H2O and material production is available. We just have some kinks in the transport link to work out.

A manned expedition to Mars will be much easier eventually from the Moon.

 

You don't have to have water to mix with tang, we used to take vodka and tang with us to the field in the Army, nasty stuff.

 

One of the most useful benifits is actually rather unintentional and that is the trickle down of the technology required to execute such a feat. We will unknowingly reap the benifits of the technology that was developed by pushing the envolope to new dismensions. The same goes with war. A good many of your daily conveniences were made possible because of defense technology that was so expensive that it would never have happened in the private sector.

 

You have to start somewhere. We can't just do nothing like this and then in 20 years spend a bunch of money and put a man on mars. We have to do these things to learn from the experiences, or else we'll be stuck on this planet earth forever.

And not to mention space in another 100 years will be critical, and the US needs to stay on top of the ball above other countries.

 

A few points actually on-topic:

The Viking missions (two, just like the new rovers) were much more complicated than the new rovers.

They actually orbited Mars for a while, took pictures of actual landing spots, NASA decided where to land based on those pix, and down it went. The new rovers used data gathered by another mission to determine where to land, no need for high-res camera on board, no need to orbit for a long time with all that entails (maintaining orbit and keeping orientation require maneuvering rockets and fuel).

They were heavier, more complex, and "tried to accomplish too much" according to some NASA press that I saw relating to the "smaller, cheaper, faster" policy now in place, which is being reviewed, based on the successes of the early BIG BANG missions like the moon and Viking, and how many recent projects have failed...

As to the advantages of exploration:

Pumping piles of money into a project like the Mars rovers provides companies with R&D money, which filters down into jobs, taxes, new technology, you name it.

If Mars were made of gold and diamonds, there would already be corporations with bases there, mining it for everything it had... the science is there, the technology exists (witness Apollo moon missions), there is a lack of commitment to the time and money needed to get there.

See, I think Mars is one of those places that you need to make a mass effort, and I just don't mean send two or three people there and let them collect a few rocks, leave some footprints behind and go home.

You need to make it a one-way trip for the first few waves of colonists. You send 5 couples, without return capability, which leaves a lot of room for food reserves, raw materials, etc. They land, and even before they are dug in, another wave is arriving. Keep that up for 20 years, as time and money permit. By that time, you already have kids that have grown up (if 20 is grown up these days), you have hundreds of seed colonists teaching them, hopefully something useful can be mined easily enough that is usefull to build, etc. etc.

I'm sure the first visit will be a gather-and-return mission. But I sure hope they actually realize that it's just a new frontier. I'm sure there would be hundreds of volunteers immediately...

How can I make an SD V10 run on Mars? ...

 

Solar panels

Everything else has been well covered already so I'll just throw my hat in to support the Explorers/Adventurers/Big Picture Thinkers.

Oh,, there is one other thing,, that pesky Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator to be dealt with.

 

And no nukes, unless we bring them with us... might be good for a power supply though.

I'm still waiting for a nuclear pile to put in the back of my truck. Raise the rods, smoke the tires!

har har ....

 

Yeah really, whatever happened to those miniature nucular reactors we were supposed to have by now? I can understand why we really don't want flying cars for every idiot. But can you imagine what one of those big three phase industrial motors woud be like in a car or truck if you had a practical and lightweight way to power it? Or a powerful direct drive motor in each wheel. ( I had to spell nuclear the way bush pronounces it, sorry.)

 

What happened is the same thing that Christie Brinkley is complaining about - BAD SCIENCE.

Remember the Three Mile Island accident? It released radioactivity into the water/air around the plant.

Guess what? If you were standing right next to the damn thing, you would have been exposed to LESS radiation than a standard hospital x-ray machine would give you.

Now, it's all this hocus-pokus, like no matter what, we're all going to live shorter lives because of this. Get a Gieger counter and check the radioactivity coming from the bedrock. Then, check it around a nuclear reactor - nothing different. Hmm... background radiation, what a concept. Someone else in this thread mentioned cosmic rays - guess what? You are being bombarded by them right now!

Anyway, too many people got frightened by it, and now it's an urban legend, almost.

Nuclear weapons, yeah, bad for you. Nuclear power? Almost laughably safe. In careless hands, it'll bite...

Do you know why the Galileo probes are still sending back data from the edge of the solar system after 20 some-odd years of service? They contain a little uranium fuel cell... takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'...

 

Does anybody Know at what Velocity they are moving thru the "Neighborhood " At???? I'm really surprised that we are still able to decipher their radio messages as their transmitters were rated at LESS THAN 100 watts , I believe. Very interesting science . I'm trying to remember the Temp in space which seems like it was around -180 degree's F. or maybe alittle colder. Christie Brinkley could get my reactor going....no problem and I sure wouldn't NEED a Geiger Counter to measure her Gamma Radiation....she still looks like an A-Bomb just waiting for the Proper Detinator ..........s.kuteman

 

A couple of years ago I was doing a small construction job at a government test facility and I watched the workmen there set up a test of a nice sized white fabric strap. They set up a deadman and hooked the other end to a ram about the size of a bucket ram off a 966 which was also bolted to the test floor. They set it up with cameras and strain gauges and herded us all into the control building while they pulled the big strap in two. So I asked what was going on and I didn't expect much but the tell tale dirty look but it turned out it was a "Zylon" strap and it was to be used in the Mars probe. So I am really stoked because they finally got their unit to Mars and the Zylon cut the mustard and the landing went well. So if someday you are in the auto parts store and you spot a nice white tow strap and it says on it "Now with Zylon" it might be worth an extra buck or two.

 

Ahh, let's don't forget Chernoble(sp?) krewat, we hear so little from you. It's good to know you are still around.