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It's a nice quote but with this logic you can justify any absurd attempt to do anything. At the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean it was a (relatively)
by bnegreve 12y ago
It's a nice quote but with this logic you can justify any absurd attempt to do anything.
At the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean it was a (relatively) reasonable thing to do given the boat they had. Can we say the same about the ones who tried 500 years before and died? Probably not.
Is the right time to try colonizing Mars? What would be the chance of success given our current technology level?
I think those are very relevant question that needs to be discussed with facts rather than quotes.
- jimktrains2 12y ago> At the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean it was a (relatively) reasonable thing to do given the boat they had. Was it that reasonable at the time? Granted no one really thought they'd fall off the edge of the world and we did have long-time-at-sea experience, even if near the shore. Compared to today: the US has a decent track-record of landing on Mars. We have the tech to do it. We have a decent amount of experience in LEO. What makes a manned-Mars trip more or less absurd than Columbus' first trans-Atlantic voyage? Is it simply that Columbus hoped to be profitable by sailing to the East and we don't have that same expectation of a Mars mission?
- omeid2 12y agoMars at 54.6 million km compared to moon at merely ~0.4 million km is about 135 times further away and considering the amount of on-board supply and resources, a trip to Mars is on whole another level. Going for a 10 meter dive isn't a good enough testimony to over a 1km deep dive.