I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I have have a sinking feeling this might be the closest thing NASA presently has to a viable plan for manned Mars exploration.
Well, we certainly didn't hear the word Mars in that State of the Nation speech, did we? Given the economic meltdown, this really could be as close as we get for a generation. We seem to have more urgent issues tugging at our sleeve. Health care, jobs, education, global warming - which should we dump to buy rocket fuel? Yeah. I know. Reality bites.
Many of the technologies needed for a sustainable manned presence in space are exactly the technologies we'll be needing in a serious fight against climate change. A mission to Mars and solving our ever-present maladies on Earth are by no means mutually exclusive endeavors.
Well, we certainly didn't hear the word Mars in that State of the Nation speech, did we? Given the economic meltdown, this really could be as close as we get for a generation. We seem to have more urgent issues tugging at our sleeve. Health care, jobs, education, global warming - which should we dump to buy rocket fuel? Yeah. I know. Reality bites.
ReplyDeleteMany of the technologies needed for a sustainable manned presence in space are exactly the technologies we'll be needing in a serious fight against climate change. A mission to Mars and solving our ever-present maladies on Earth are by no means mutually exclusive endeavors.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Mac, but the public is being memed otherwise.
ReplyDeleteSad.
A mission to Mars and solving our ever-present maladies on Earth are by no means mutually exclusive endeavors.
ReplyDelete