The Future of Life

[bongboy1]

So I've been following the Mars Curiosity Rover, an SUV sized rover which was sent to the Gale Crater on Mars to investigate the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration.
Well it takes 90 minutes for a signal from the Curiosity Rover to travel from the Martian surface to Earth and vise versa. When we finally get that signal from the Martian surface, it takes scientist several hours to analyze that data n plot the rovers next moves. That data gets sent from earth to curiosity (wait 90 minutes for signal to travel through space), curiosity does its task, n uploads images n data back to earth (another 90 minutes). Anyways, Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6th. Since then, Curiosity has found concrete proof that running water once flowed on Mars! We need to send manned missions to Mars so we can finally unravel the mysteries of life in our solar system. Human beings can do more on the Martian surface in 90 minutes, that robotics have been able to do in 20 yrs. I should also say that investing in our space program is invensting in survival of the human race. Earth won't last for ever.
You can follow NASA's Curiosity Rover at JPL's website below
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/rover/

[cpxxx]

Manned missions are enormously expensive. Budget busting stuff. It's no accident that no one has gone back to the moon. Manned missions to Mars won't be happening anytime soon. Although it will be talked about as if it was actually going to happen.

In an era when the US doesn't even have the capability to put a person in Earth orbit, never mind Mars. It's not really practical.

[bongboy1]

In an era when the US doesn't even have the capability to put a person in Earth orbit, never mind Mars. It's not really practical.

We have all the technogoly required to to start planning a trip to mars. We already started when bush said that we would have americans walking on mars by 2025. Then obama came in n cut the program. N when I comes to money, yes its very expensive but think about all the nasa inventions or inventions that have been spun off nasa inventions. Things like velcro, dialysis machine, CAT scanners, physical therapy, the MICRO CHIP, microwave n tons of other inventions all thanks to nasa. N ofcourse modern discoveries by nasa will take decades till we see an impact in the economy, but think past our enconomy or all that other bs. Tomorrow, an astriod could hit any of the moons in our solar system sending a city sized chunk of rock in our direction with weeks to respond. Ofcourse this is a super long shot but the fact of the matter is, we're living in a shooting gallery n eventually we're gunna get that golden bb. Btw its my day off at 3am n several jack n cokes down. Anyways back to the point, our space program may be extremely expensive, but it is the key to our survival. Whether it saves us years from now or 10,000 yrs from now. Our space program is the key to our survival n w/o we're doomed to be a 1 planet species

[bongboy1]

As far as we know we're the only living beings in the universe! The fact that we"re here breathing on this little home we call earth is a miracle in itself! Life should be cherished n protected and we owe it to future generations to set a good example n fund the future of life as we know it. Maybe one day when humans are an inter plantery species, they'll look back on us as the god fathers of life.

[Bino]

Manned missions are enormously expensive. Budget busting stuff. It's no accident that no one has gone back to the moon. Manned missions to Mars won't be happening anytime soon. Although it will be talked about as if it was actually going to happen.

In an era when the US doesn't even have the capability to put a person in Earth orbit, never mind Mars. It's not really practical.

Whenever I see a comment like this about space exploration, it reminds me of something that Pournelle wrote:

"...there is a near infinite supply of resources available in space. It's raining soup out there and all we have is forks rather than soup bowls..."

[bongboy1]

Well its comman fact the the moon has an enormous supply of helium 3 (he3) which is a gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. So it just might be that whoever controls the space race, has control over the worlds next energy supply.

[smoe]

Living on Mars would not be any better than living underground on Earth.

[nrshida]

The human race has a very long way to go before it has the technology, the wisdom and the right to colonise another planet.

Well its comman fact the the moon has an enormous supply of helium 3 (he3) which is a gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. So it just might be that whoever controls the space race, has control over the worlds next energy supply.

This kind of thinking is the root cause of most of this world's human problems already, how are you escaping this by taking it with you?

[LCADolby]

We will have to get passed the Nazi's that are hidden on the dark side of the moon first 

[RTHolmes]

Human beings can do more on the Martian surface in 90 minutes, that robotics have been able to do in 20 yrs.

maybe in 1969, but not these days. manned missions are for the mostpart a massively expensive (and therefore unproductive) indulgance.

consider that the 14 Apollo mission moon EVAs cost about $2.5bn per hour ...

[fbEagle]

The technology exists to put someone on mar. however we dont have the tech to bring them back. Would you like to volunteer to go first? 

[WYOKIDIII]

The technology exists to put someone on mar. however we dont have the tech to bring them back. Would you like to volunteer to go first? 

This is absolutely false . There have been several different stratagies explored in making round trip journeys to Mars . one of the most common involves sending unmanned landers to preposition building materials for a base and fuel for the extended mission and return trip to earth .

[Volron]

If someone were to up and say, "We will be the first to build a facility/colony on the Moon...", you'd see a lot of motivation from everyone who can, to actually BE the first to do it.  Can't underestimate the Chinese, or even the Russians, in this task.  I feel they have the ability to allocate more resources in a shorter period of time to the task than the US, and possibly anyone else.  Hmm...

[NatCigg]

As far as we know we're the only living beings in the universe! The fact that we"re here breathing on this little home we call earth is a miracle in itself! Life should be cherished n protected and we owe it to future generations to set a good example n fund the future of life as we know it. Maybe one day when humans are an inter plantery species, they'll look back on us as the god fathers of life.

Id like to be this young again. hehe

We are made of this earth. 

how far is to the next rock we can step outside of our ship?  or have we not found that rock yet?

if you tap space resources your offsetting the earths balance further.

[EagleDNY]

Well its comman fact the the moon has an enormous supply of helium 3 (he3) which is a gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. So it just might be that whoever controls the space race, has control over the worlds next energy supply.

Having been in the Fusion Studies Institute at UT, I can tell you it will be a long time (maybe never) before they get a practical fusion reactor.   They are still missing a critical piece of the physics pie on that one.   The sun gets to do fusion because of an infinite supply of free gravitational energy providing the pressures and temperatures needed.   We are trying to do it by banging the rocks together in a really expensive magnetic can and then hoping we can recover enough energy from it to run the can and have some extra left over. 

Pournelle probably had the right idea with the solar power satellites.  All we have to do is build some cheap way to throw mass into orbit and then have remote robots put it together.