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going to the moon was the first step in a potential Mars mission...this pushes back Mars by a decade at least
by holograham 17y ago
going to the moon was the first step in a potential Mars mission...this pushes back Mars by a decade at least
- ajross 17y agoYou have a cite for that decade number? Seems silly to me, given that we've already been to the moon, and over 40 years ago at that. Surely we should be at Neptune at least by now, no? :) More seriously: what is the value of a Mars mission that we should be paying for it? There's no meaningful science to be done there (vs. what can be done via much cheaper means, anyway), just lots of eye candy and fantasy material for wannabe astronauts.
- holograham 17y agoyes.... http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/orion_announcement.html http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/orion_announcement.html The orion crew capsule was part of the Constellation program. Same technology and innovations to bring the astronauts to the moon.
- gamble 17y agoThe moon has never made any sense as a stepping stone to Mars. Why truck fuel and materiel down a gravity well, only to bring it right back out again? Nor would the Apollo-redux spacecraft suitable to a moon mission be useful for a trip to Mars. A realistic Mars mission would consist of a spacecraft assembled in earth orbit, then flown directly to Mars. However, the technology required to get a human crew to Mars and bring them back alive is so far beyond what we have now that the moon-as-a-stepping-stone plan is more of a way to avoid confronting the problems than a way to solve them.