What? No talk about the Mars Rover?

Narrew · #1 January 10th, 2004, 05:53 AM

I was thinking that the "space plane" was pretty close to being done (as far as development goes) and that they were going to use a SCRAM jet/rocket engine. Been a while but I can't remember the name otherwise I would do a google search.

Also, we will see many people saying why spend that kind of money for science fiction (not me by the way) when we need to do X,Y,Z. But I heard a great come back, If the King and Queen of Spain decided NOT to fund Christopher Columbus, where would the world be today.

The pessimist in me thinks that there are too many people that would like to go back in time and stop Columbus from discovering the new world, sorry Rutha, though I don't doubt Erickson made it over here earlier, but they didn't have the cash to capitalize on it

I have read some books from people that think by-passing the moon and just head straight to Mars is the best way to go, but hell I can see the moon almost every night, what a symbol if we can set something up permanently.

I hope we do it, I really do.

[ January 10, 2004, 03:55: Message edited by: Narrew ]

oleg · #2 January 10th, 2004, 03:32 PM

It is not THAT expensive. $400 billions are not going to be spend in one year. War in Iraq alone costs around ~100 billions. I think Mars landing is feasible in next 20-30 years.

PvK · #3 January 11th, 2004, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Narrew:
... But I heard a great come back, If the King and Queen of Spain decided NOT to fund Christopher Columbus, where would the world be today.

The pessimist in me thinks that there are too many people that would like to go back in time and stop Columbus from discovering the new world, sorry Rutha, though I don't doubt Erickson made it over here earlier, but they didn't have the cash to capitalize on it
...

Well I wouldn't have turned down Columbus for budget reasons...

... on the other hand, wiping out all the indigenous cultures of the Americas wasn't cool in my book.

I also don't think "lack of cash" explains why the Scandinavian colonists left.

But I'm mainly just being contrary.

PvK

Fyron · #4 January 11th, 2004, 12:50 AM

Those English, French, Spanish and Portugese conquerors were nasty people... Of course, you have to keep in mind that most of the indigenous peoples that died died from diseases carried by Europeans for which they had no immunity to at all, and so the diseases were fatal, rather than just inconveniences.

[ January 10, 2004, 22:51: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Cipher7071 · #5 January 11th, 2004, 05:06 AM

A few years back, there was a program to design a truly reusable space vehicle called "Venturestar," or perhaps "Venture Star." That may be what was Narrew was referring to below for the topic of a Google search.

[ January 11, 2004, 03:08: Message edited by: Cipher7071 ]

Kamog · #6 January 11th, 2004, 11:10 AM

According to this article, it is expected that Bush will announce a manned mission to Mars. Also, a Moon base is to be constructed within the next 15 years.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994551

Captain Kwok · #7 January 11th, 2004, 09:12 PM

Isn't it interesting to see how the administration is quick to "latch" on to the early success of the latest Mars mission and grab the positive publicity and make all these grand statements about future exploration...when the real guys are making it really happen at NASA despite facing cuts and cuts for the Last two decades?