Thoughts about that Mars mission

[Second Front]

getyourwaron (http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war30.html)

[RDK]

:rolleyes:

[Tenorman]

Give us another hundred years and there will be more trees on Mars than there are on Earth

Gives us another planet to wreck

[Grub]

If i was an American citizen I'd be well and truly pissed off with the way the US government has been thowing public money at its space exploration programmes but cutting back on key areas. I saw a TV clip of that prat Bush mark 1 obsessing about colonising other planets. Clearly daddy has been teaching his runt offspring a thing or 2.

[solarjazzband]

Well, I think it's a very nice idea, to put so much money in exploring the universe! I'm glad that America has so much money to do that, so that we here can save a lot ;) But I'm sure I would think a whole lot different if I lived in America...

[joefont]

Originally posted by Grub
If i was an American citizen I'd be well and truly pissed off with the way the US government has been thowing public money at its space exploration programmes but cutting back on key areas.

To put things into perspective, NASA has requested a 16.2 billion dollar budget for 2005; or about .75% (read that, 3/4 of 1 percent) of the total federal budget. Oh Yeah...I'm really pissed off. :)

[3pointdeli]

Originally posted by solarjazzband
Well, I think it's a very nice idea, to put so much money in exploring the universe! I'm glad that America has so much money to do that, so that we here can save a lot ;) But I'm sure I would think a whole lot different if I lived in America...

you won't think it's so nice when you find yourself working as a haliburton slave on mars.

[Saundra Hummer]

Speaking of Cheney's baby, what is going on wth the investigations into Haliburton allegedly ripping off "OUR" government?

When and how are they being investigated?

Will the Supreme Court, (or should I say the court of appeals?) save their bacon, like they did GW's?

Of course a conviction would have to be rendered before that could happen.

Yeah, right!

[It Should be You]

Just in case Mars is populated, we'd better start thinking now of how to position jazz as earth's major musical art form of the 21st century, or the only truly American art form, blah blah blah...

[3pointdeli]

Originally posted by Saundra Hummer
Speaking of Cheney's baby, what is going on wth the investigations into Haliburton allegedly ripping off "OUR" government?

When and how are they being investigated?

Will the Supreme Court, (or should I say the court of appeals?) save their bacon, like they did GW's?

Of course a conviction would have to be rendered before that could happen.

Yeah, right!

the army just changed their tune regarding haliburton. there were articles about this yesterday on the major news websites. i'd summarize, but i ate fried food for lunch and somehow my mind has been scattered ever since. perhaps someone else can post a link. i wish i could remember the details, but basically whatever excuse they made about haliburton originally has been changed to some other excuse.

[Saundra Hummer]

We've reaped tons of benefits from space exploration, the collective imaginations of our brain pool; medicine, and the telescopes they use in it, electronics, our computers, weather predictions, and on, and on, however there are good programs and foolish ones, and at this time, it seems that Mars is a stretch.

We still have so many things left undone on our own little planet, it seems a pity to spend such a huge sum, when we could put it to better use right here on earth. Then they can take off for wherever.

[RDK]

Since no one else is willing, I'll step up and say that I'm positively thrilled at the prospect of a manned mission to Mars!

[3pointdeli]

i've never cared for one way trips.

[Saundra Hummer]

Originally posted by 3pointdeli
i've never cared for one way trips.


Can you even Imagine!!!

[Noj]

I think a manned mission to Mars should be a much more distant goal...say, next century.

How 'bout they get to the point where the space shuttle can carry enough parts to build a shelter on the Moon?

How do they intend to blast off from Mars? It isn't as if a planet that size has a weak gravitational pull. How do they intend to carry enough fuel to get back?

Love the Hubble, great pictures. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[still life]

Originally posted by Noj
I think a manned mission to Mars should be a much more distant goal...say, next century.

How 'bout they get to the point where the space shuttle can carry enough parts to build a shelter on the Moon?

How do they intend to blast off from Mars? It isn't as if a planet that size has a weak gravitational pull. How do they intend to carry enough fuel to get back?

Love the Hubble, great pictures. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.


I love the Hubble too and, it's a CANADIAN invention. Did I hear that they're discontinuing use of it??
Well, they can use all the money they save for..............whatever it is that's more important. What are they going to use on Mars, if they go, in place of the Hubble?

If I didn't know better, I would think it was part of GW's snit at Canada, for not marching off to the war in Iraq. When he pouts, at not getting his way, you don't ever get out of the doghouse. Along with our steel, agriculture, softwood lumber.......and on and on, we are still being shat upon. Oh, and our prescription drugs are cheaper too.
We haven't forgotten his phoney as a three dollar bill comment to us, that we were "family", so he didn't have to apologize, when four of our soldiers were killed and eight others wounded by an American bomb, dropped on purpose on them in Afghanistan. Bush only mentioned it, because when he ignored it there was a huge PR outcry. What a hypocritical S.O.B.!!!!

[Tenorman]

Originally posted by Noj


How do they intend to blast off from Mars? It isn't as if a planet that size has a weak gravitational pull. How do they intend to carry enough fuel to get back?



Well they have this big elastic band, and they pull the landing craft backwards with the two Mars Rovers and then catapult it into orbit

And if the elastic band doesn't do the trick, they have a string orchestra lined up:laugh: :rolleyes:

[Saundra Hummer]

You know Patricia, you probably have something there, sounds more reasonable than anything we'ver heard before, your reasoning makes more sense when you think about it.

We all are sorry about your losses, and we were appalled at the lack of sympathy that came from the Oval Office, and it's crew.

Such men of vision and foresight! No wonder we are getting ourselves into bigger and bigger messes around the world.

[still life]

Originally posted by Saundra Hummer
You know Patricia, you probably have something there, sounds more reasonable than anything we'ver heard before, your reasoning makes more sense when you think about it.

We all are sorry about your losses, and we were appalled at the lack of sympathy that came from the Oval Office, and it's crew.

Such men of vision and foresight! No wonder we are getting ourselves into bigger and bigger messes around the world.

I kept thinking, the more days passed with no acknowledgement of the SNAFU of something my late mother taught me. She used to remind me that an apology costs nothing, but it has immeasurable benefits. I guess G.W. was never taught that when screw-ups happen and people die, it's a good idea to at least pretend he cared. What a doofus. It would have been so easy. People make mistakes and this was a huge, tragic mistake. Our guys were there, supporting the action in Afghanistan, the same as all the other countries, who at that time were allies.
The British also lost a plane and it's crew when it was shot down by the fabled "Patriot missel", which was shown to be less than 1% accurate at shooting down Scud missels in the first gulf war.
At first, the Bush spokespeople tried to blame the British for not being properly identified as British, until it turned out that the Patriot missels were set on automatic, to target ANY plane in the area and shoot it down. No apology for the screw-up there either. Don't get me started on the Patriot missel. Despite the assertion by Raetheon, the manufacturers and the Administration, they were shown not to have the wonderful, 100% success rate at shooting down scuds, as Norman Schwartkopf reported, but PERHAPS 1%-4%. :rolleyes:
But still, there they were, back for this war. Amazing!!

No class, or compassion. Sad.

[It Should be You]

Originally posted by Tenorman
And if the elastic band doesn't do the trick, they have a string orchestra lined up:laugh: :rolleyes:

Exactly! Now that's thinking ahead!!

[Frank Mullen]

Good thing the Mars rovers were completed before Bush could cut their funds. They've added more to scientific knowledge in a week or so than the space platform has in years. Or ever will. They've found more positive evidence of water and although they're not designed to definitively determine the presence of life, water is the sine que non of life.
Wowee ---
I hope they find signs of present or former life forms however basic. Can you imagine the irritation of the creationists!!!. How heartwarming.

Another blow to the administrations midieval masters!!!!! Remember how the administration limited government financed researchers to work only with embryonic stem cell lines that were derived before 9 PM on August 9 2001. Is that scientific silliness or did Bush find that date on a rock?Did the Lord God come to him a dream and confide it to him?

Meanwhile the Brits are developing new stem cell lines and making them available free to all qualified researchers. Were that condition to continue can you guess which country would fall behind in biological science?

Fortunately Harvard has been working cut off from goverment funds in this field and have developed 17 new stem cell lines it is making available to researchers.
But not if they are supported by government grants. If they are then they are bound by Bush's magic cutoff date. Another example of Bush politics making scientific decisions.
And don't get me started on why these shitheads are abandoning Hubble.Or why Christie Whitman really resigned. Or how they're already drilling in Alaska.Or why Bush has done nothing--nothing about Energy policy.(Have you noticed your gas prices yet?) Can we make it for another year with this guy?

[3pointdeli]

gotta agree w/ adam on the tax issue. schools and churches should be taxed.

sadly, i don't know enough about hubble, or i'd engage adam in a mean spirited argument. just kidding, adam.

seriously though, i looked at a smithsonian magazine in my workplace breakroom yesterday. amazing space photography. did you know that jupiter has 61 moons...at least! that boggles my mind. didn't they used to say there were 14, or something?

[Andy D]

The US interest in Mars is strategic, as it uses most of the World's natural resources to feed the demand of the population, and thus creates 25% or so of the CFC's etc, it needs an alternative place to continue and Mars will do:wink2:

Regards

Andy D.

[Frank Mullen]

First--Hubble has been serviced 3 times and was scheduled for an update next year.That update was to do a number of things: a) -replace gyroscopes which mechanically keep the scope pointed in one direction--and being mechanical, wear out eventually. b) to extend the optical range of the telescope into the ultraviolet range of the spectrum,as well as its current optical region. There are some other improvements planned but those are the major jobs that were to be done before Bush cancelled the mission. I should add that some 200 million bucks worth equipment has already been built for this mission,and without the mission will become so much technological junk since it was built for the Hubble alone.

That the next scheduled space telescope (the Webb scope) will replace it is so much crap. The Webb scope covers a different region of the electromagnetic spectrum (Infra red ) This region (like the ultraviolet) is of frequencies outside the range that the human eye is sensitive to.

There is another observatory in orbit as well--the Chandra XRay scope, covering still another portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers would much prefer to have simultaneous observations in each of these regions when they are trying to figure out what is going on in the universe.

Sure--all of these are or would be in orbits about the earth which would eventually decay, but thats not why Bush has sealed Hubbles fate. It's money to be saved.

Look what Hubble has done just in the last months of its life. It took pictures of a black hole tearing a star apart and absorbing it. It has produced the best pictures ever taken of Saturn. It has photographed two galaxies colliding and merging. And together with a ground telescope in the southern hemisphere it has found the most distant galaxy of stars ever seen.It has also found both oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of a distant planet outside the solar system Its next task is to photograph whats going on in the most distant region of the universe.

I emphasize--the Webb is not a replacement for Hubble--it is to extend the range of Hubble. It doesn't do the same job.

Many in NASA believe that the Mars program proposed by Bush is a Trojan horse designed to eliminate the whole space program. The space rovers on Mars right now are sending heaps of information for a fraction of what a manned mission would cost.

Bush's daddy proposed a Mars trip back in 1989 but dropped the idea when he was given an estimate of 400 billion.

The space station was first proposed by another scientific amateur-Reagan at an extimated 8 billion. As of 2001 it cost 23 billion and climbing. The shuttles were designed to service it--even though its scientific output has been close to zero. Compare that with the Hubble.

It is within our scientific ability to service these instruments, keeping them going,boosting their orbits when they decay. From a scientific point of view these scopes justify the dollar output. The space station, and the projected Mars program do not.. Bush is trying to throw the baby out with the bath.

[3pointdeli]

well, it don't take the hubble space telescope to see what bush is doing to the space program.