"Houston, We're Going Back to the Moon"

W0RF · Jan 9, 2004

Bush vision: manned flights to moon, Mars

I don't think I've been this excited about a government initiative since... well... forever. I was convinced they were just going to fly eggheads back and forth to the ISS on shuttles until they all blew up or the space station crashed to earth. I didn't expect space travel to advance any further until one or two or three rich eccentrics started financing private space planes and grew an industry out of it.

How cool would it be for us to start colonies on the moon and elsewhere in the solar system? America would finally have a place to send its politicians :lol:

There's still plenty of Earth to explore (land is only a quarter of the planet you know), but whether under the water or up in space, I think humanity needs to grow if it intends to prosper. Stagnation hasn't been too kind to us the last 30 years.

SkaarjMaster · Jan 9, 2004

I agree!

Hunter · Jan 9, 2004

same here would be cool, maybe we could get the whole of BuF up there.

would be interesting and a whole new meaning of "going back to your home planet" could be used with meaning

namu · Jan 9, 2004

As a european Mars Society member, I have two reactions:

1) ABOUT TIME !

2) A "Reelect me" crank ?

As much as I'd love to see a manned mission to Mars, I'd hate it to turn out to be another "No Child Left Behind". AFAIK Bush can promise anything on the long-term, 10 years later he won't be held responsible. But it'd be nice that the US snap out of hysteria.

W0RF · Jan 9, 2004

He could get elected thirty times, for all I care, as long as whoever is the President keeps giving NASA constructive things to do.

TWD · Jan 9, 2004

Got links?

NeoNite · Jan 9, 2004

"How cool would it be for us to start colonies on the moon and elsewhere in the solar system?"

How long will it even take to make mars habitable? So much to do, I'll never live to see the day men will have colonies on mars. I mean: people can walk outside, with no suits,breath fresh air (will this ever be possible?)...

Maybe another planet to ruin (bitter)

And maybe not. Who'll say...

novak · Jan 9, 2004

I wonder where the hell does he expect to get the cash? The budget deficit is big enough as it is and now he wants to make it worse? I guess that means less money for healthcare and social services in general.

Way to go GWB. :tup:

Bean 3:16 · Jan 9, 2004

It is possible for us to do anything!

I say we use the Moon for training, but we gotta make Mars our focus! Go MARS! We can do it all!

But Kavon raised a good point...

SugarBear · Jan 9, 2004

how exactly does one inhabit a moon that is freezing cold, with no oxygen, no water, no hospitable planting environment, not enough sunlight to work with....we can go back and forth to the moon all we want, but we'll never inhabit it the way we inhabit earth, it would cost trillions to create giant indoor facilities that would provide sunlight, heat, oxygen...no good, not a single chance of it in our lifetime or our childrens childrens lifetimes

edhe · Jan 9, 2004

He's just taking the focus off his fantastically bad local (IE EARTH) situation

namu · Jan 9, 2004

Mars can be made Earth-like (but a bit cold, like the North-European countries) in 2500 years. We won't need pressure suits 30 to 50 years after the beginning of the terra-formation, that's when atmospheric pressure will be around 200 mbar.

das_ben · Jan 9, 2004

Deathmaker · Jan 9, 2004

Bah! Colonies on the Moon will never happen. Everyone knows it was blown out of Earth's orbit by a massive explosion in Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 2 back in September, 1999.

W0RF · Jan 9, 2004

-reaper- said:
How?

It's a prohibitively complex process, but in short, there are a handful of crucial ingredients: clouds to trap the heat, plants to oxygenate the atmosphere, and water to sustain life (hence we come back to the cloud thing)... that's just for starters.

LordKhaine · Jan 9, 2004

Woah... you mean he'll actually spend the money on something useful? Maybe he can take a cut out of the US defence budget to help out NASA

Still, I guess we can thank China and the next election for this increased NASA funding.

namu · Jan 9, 2004

Heating Mars will make the CO2 trapped in rocks and ice evaporate, which will trap more sun heat into the atmosphere, which will heat Mars, which will... etc...

That's for the first 50 year-long part, aimed at augmenting the atmospheric pressure from 6 mbar to ~100 mbar and global temperature from -60 C to -50 or -40 C.

Then there's the task of converting enough CO2 to O2, up to the point that O2's partial pressure will be 120 mbar, at which point the atmosphere should be breathable without special equipment. This will certainly take more than 1000 or even 2000 years, with plants and processing facilities.

I may have a few details wrong here...

LordKhaine · Jan 9, 2004

That's one method namu, but personally I prefer the Total Recall method.

W0RF · Jan 9, 2004

I expect three-boobed chicks within my natural lifetime.

Saito · Jan 9, 2004

LordKhaine said:
Woah... you mean he'll actually spend the money on something useful? Maybe he can take a cut out of the US defence budget to help out NASA

Still, I guess we can thank China and the next election for this increased NASA funding.

You do know that NASA and the DOD are very very closely related. The Navy and Airforce have allot of space born accets that we do depend on. Plus most NASA piolts are military, I would say its pretty sure the DOD will foot part of the bill as they are ones that gain the most out of our space programs. Furthermore the CIA and NSA are also big players in space.

Aside from that space exploration has helped most of the world. I think all of us are glad for the miraid of devices up there that power things we use everyday we just never think about it.

"Houston, We're Going Back to the Moon"

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