Friday, October 03, 2008

Does the US have what it takes to put a man on Mars?


Carl Sagan once said "All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." a truly pesimestic or hopeful opinion depending on your point of view. It only took eight years for JFK’s dream to land a man on the moon to be fulfilled, but plans to to land a man on is going to take just that little bit longer -24 years to be exact. writing in The Daily Galaxy blog puts down this caustic but fair "glove" asking in a recent post does the Us have "the right stuff" to get a human footprint on the surface of Mars.

Kazan isn't putting any new information on the table and even less speculation. What he is doing is putting all the most important interest points together and the general opinions help by the general populace. All the major mission facets from returning to the moon to stepping off on Mars with comment on what equipment and other problems have to be overcome to get this mission "off the ground and flying" Nothing new, except maybe a clear set of eyes and for that reason, I would give the article a read to get a well rounded look at the problems facing NASA as it pushes for a Mars landing

5 comments:

Dave Tackett said...

It is a good question. It seems that the US may be becoming to
effete and misdirected for any significant accomplishments in the near future. Maybe Asia (Japan or Chine) will pick up the ball.

Beam Me Up said...

ouch Dave!
but then that is what drew me to this comment post. Has our time passed? Are we so distracted and fractured to tie the will and the effort together. The minute you mentioned Asia the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Science fiction has been painting China a bigger portion of the future than other regions. Movies like Johnny Memonic and Blade Runner to name just a few drew a strong thread of
Asian cultural influence, which leads one to think that space effort has to be part of that as well. Yep, as much as it bothers me and I hope to be proved wrong, I think you may have nailed it.

Anonymous said...

Um, is the question regarding Mars meant to be interpreted as before or after the looming long-term recession/depression?

As was said in the movie 'The Right Stuff', 'no bucks, no Buck Rogers...'

Anonymous said...

you know what Shaun, I think you just hit the nail square on. The only thing that will save a Mars mission now would be counting on the lack of short term memory the average voter exhibits.

Anonymous said...

Yep, it hurts to say it, but the current economic forecast doesn't exactly look too good for returning to the moon, either (despite the opportunities there, which have been ignored for almost 4 decades now, good economic times and bad)...

And without a return to our nearest neighbour, Mars seems even further away...