Our Scientist were smarter back in 69 than our present crop ...

[dogtag]

Back in 1969 our Boffins sent Men to the Moon, landed them,
safely then brought them back home.
Our new crop can't even get their rocket to work let alone
duplicate their predecessors' earlier triumph. Maybe their
decrees came out of a briefcase ? If not then why haven't
we landed on Mars by now ? It's been fifty years and all that's
been accomplished in the interim is a space station that has
proved little more than that bugs suffer from headaches when
in freefall. Of course, obama didn't help matters when he
cancelled space missions and directed NASA to make nice to
muslims. But that still leaves 42 years of not much being
accomplished. At this rate we'll need all the five billion years
left to Earth before it's demise to figure out the secret of
getting to our Planets let alone the Stars.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nasa-moon-rocket-engines/2021/01/17/id/1005975/

I expounded on this a couple of years back and nothing much
has happened since, except maybe this rocket that doesn't work.

[lyman]

private industry will take over (re Musk) and get it done,

the Gov't hired hippies after the Apollo missions who are too busy arguing over climate of spotted turtles etc,

[Vern Humphrey]

The question is, WHY would we want to land on Mars?

Let's imagine we have a spacecraft right here, designed to carry men to Mars and back. Now let's go into that spacecraft and rip out everything needed to make a manned mission to Mars -- oxygen tanks, fuel (for the return trip), food and so on.

Now replace all that weight with robotic investigative tools and instruments. You can see we can do a LOT more with unmanned missions.

[Roadkingtrax]

The four elements essential to good paragraph writing are: unity, order, coherence, and completeness.

[togor]

NASA's unmanned exploration program has performed outstanding work.

[lyman]

The question is, WHY would we want to land on Mars?

Let's imagine we have a spacecraft right here, designed to carry men to Mars and back. Now let's go into that spacecraft and rip out everything needed to make a manned mission to Mars -- oxygen tanks, fuel (for the return trip), food and so on.

Now replace all that weight with robotic investigative tools and instruments. You can see we can do a LOT more with unmanned missions.

dogtag wants to be a Stranger in a Strangeland,

[JB White]

Why do we want to land on Mars? Aside from the information gleaned from the robotic missions?

Projecting farther into the future, knowing our Sun and our planet will someday come to an end. Our instincts dictate survival of the species. Right now there are several prospects out there suspected of being or becoming Earth 2. Further investigation is warranted should it be necessary to move someday. Discoveries in that process allow us to adapt here and out there.
Perhaps a cure for cancer found in the rings of Saturn or something on a moon of Pluto which might solve our energy problems? We don't know but there's a chance it could happen.
As of now all we can do is look and guess. Theories contrived from the spectrum of distant light. For us to move forward we need to not only get there, it also return before we could ever know.
How are we to get to Milwaukee if we don't cross the street?

The money spent isn't wasted. It stays here and circulates.That's all the government is responsible for. Seeing that it circulates and the demand for OUR money is greater than the others.
The difference is in circulating it responsibly where it continues to work vs going towards pork spending where it tends to park and sit idle. The space program has been successful in the most part. Wages poured back into the economy. Business paying those wages while growing ever so more successful they continue to invest and pour more wages into the system and the cycle continues as the program expands its horizons.

If that doesn't happen, we can all buy oxen and plows while hoping the weather stays in our favor. That plan works and history has proven it works its own way, not ours. Most of us have already surpassed previous life expectancies of our ancestors. Now we have the chance to be crust old curmudgeons complaining about....damned near everything?

The fact we,re communicating on this platform which we take for granted might not have happened if the micro chip wasn't needed. Why would you want a micro chip when what you need is feed and leather to repair a harness?

[dryheat]

We have rovers wandering all over Mars now. It takes 8-12 months to get to mars. In the meantime the astronaut is being shot up with cosmic rays and the lack of gravity is making him fall apart. A round trip would probably take about three years. Right now its a suicide mission. Of course there is the alternate plan to just let the guy die on Mars. I thought I heard Scott Kelly say that was a horrible idea.

If we intend to survive the super nova of our sun we better figure how to go a lot further.

[Vern Humphrey]

Why do we want to land on Mars? Aside from the information gleaned from the robotic missions?

Projecting farther into the future, knowing our Sun and our planet will someday come to an end. Our instincts dictate survival of the species. Right now there are several prospects out there suspected of being or becoming Earth 2. Further investigation is warranted should it be necessary to move someday. Discoveries in that process allow us to adapt here and out there.
Perhaps a cure for cancer found in the rings of Saturn or something on a moon of Pluto which might solve our energy problems? We don't know but there's a chance it could happen.
As of now all we can do is look and guess. Theories contrived from the spectrum of distant light. For us to move forward we need to not only get there, it also return before we could ever know.

But why does this require a MANNED mission? We can do it much more efficiently with robotics. As I pointed out we can cram a HUGE amount of robotics into the space we would need to support a manned mission.

How are we to get to Milwaukee if we don't cross the street?

Are we sending manned missions to Milwaukee, too?

The money spent isn't wasted. It stays here and circulates.That's all the government is responsible for. Seeing that it circulates and the demand for OUR money is greater than the others.
The difference is in circulating it responsibly where it continues to work vs going towards pork spending where it tends to park and sit idle. The space program has been successful in the most part. Wages poured back into the economy. Business paying those wages while growing ever so more successful they continue to invest and pour more wages into the system and the cycle continues as the program expands its horizons.

But ANY economic activity would have that result. And some are much more efficient than others. Is a manned mission the MOST efficient way of stimulating the economy?

If that doesn't happen, we can all buy oxen and plows while hoping the weather stays in our favor. That plan works and history has proven it works its own way, not ours. Most of us have already surpassed previous life expectancies of our ancestors. Now we have the chance to be crust old curmudgeons complaining about....damned near everything?

The fact we,re communicating on this platform which we take for granted might not have happened if the micro chip wasn't needed. Why would you want a micro chip when what you need is feed and leather to repair a harness?

Fallacy of Limited Alternatives. It isn't a case of a choice between a manned mission to Mars OR plowing with oxen.

[dogtag]

If we send robots to go places and do things, what's the point of us ?
Luckily robots were not around when Lewis and Clarke and Kit Carson were alive.

[togor]

Most here in the US are descendants of explorers. We push the frontier, and the plough.

Space travel is really tough on flesh and blood, though. And with no atmosphere and magnetic field to protect us, out in space we're at the mercy of the big fusion reactor at the center of the solar system.