Mars:The Next Frontier

I just watched a show on Discovery Science earlier about manned missions to Mars. I really enjoyed it. Keep your eyes open for it as it may be on again later on tonight (you know they love to show the same shows twice a day on those stations)..

That in my opinion is the best programme on Mars exploration.

Robert Zubrin is a genius.

He puts forward a convincing enthusiastic argument for
manned missions to Mars alright.

The only nag I have is how the Documentary skirts
like a gazelle over the some of the very fundamental issues
and jumps right into , terra forming and the like.


Obviously money would be better spent sending more and better rovers
but I'd still like to see a human on Mars before I die.

Yeah i thought it was a bit hasty to jump from actually getting people there to terra-forming. To be honest i had never considered humans terra-forming other planets...and i'm not too sure i like the idea. Even though we are apparently the only life in the universe.......i still dont think that gives us the right to go off and mess up other planets like we have done with Earth.

But i suppose that's "progress" for you.

It wouldnt surprise me if NASA do a u-turn and go with Zubrins original plans.

I thought his plans were "simple" but brilliant.

If you watched the Horizon program two weeks ago about isolation experiments you would see that the technical aspects of such a mission are the least of the problems.
Some of the Soviet cosmonauts had to be brought back because they were on the edge of complete melt down on the space station and that was for less time than the 1 year anticipated travel time to Mars.

I have an office that is 2.5 x 4 meters which also has the photocopier. I go bananas at times, with 4 other people standing chating at the copier while I am trying to get something done :roll: . Hate to think what I would do stuck in a small craft with no privacy, nothing to look at apart from earth getting smaller and no way out :twisted: .

I know what you mean Pheonix but if man stayed in his 2.5X4 metre cubicle we wouldnt know there was another island just 60 miles away from us (England) much less other islands thousands of miles away.

And thats just on OUR planet.

I agree with you though that a 6 month flight to Mars in cramped living/working quarters. It would drive me BONKERS.

But we choose to go to Mars not because it is easy but because it is hard.

(to coin a phrase).