Red Planet Roadmap: Dc Conference Eyes Manned Mars Missions

This one's for you, ATS.

There's another conference in DC to discuss the potential for going to Mars. I don't mean to sound like a "Debbie Downer" but I'm kinda tired of all the talk. If I'm not mistaken we just had a similar conference not long ago; maybe 6months ago.... It's great to get excited over the potential but after so long of hearing the same ol' thing I'm not so excited anymore. Is it real this time or is it just more talk to discuss potential? I'm cautiously excited. What say you, ATS?

The Humans 2 Mars summit will host a wide variety of panels, with topics ranging from American competitiveness in space to the daunting challenges of keeping astronauts alive on the harsh surface of the Red Planet. The conference is hosted by Explore Mars, a nonprofit group working toward a goal of sending astronauts to Mars within the next 20 years. NASA chief Charles Bolden will give the summit's keynote address on Tuesday morning. In a blog post last week, Bolden called the recent extension of the International Space Station to 2024 one of the key steps NASA is taking to prepare crews for Mars exploration.

www.space.com...

a reply to: lostbook

Maybe Russia will take the lead on this and leapfrog everyone in the "race" to Mars. The U.S. sure isn't looking to go there soon. China, well, I had hopes for them, and then their moon rover failed over a simple engineering mistake.

This conference can't hurt, and may help accelerate the timeline of the first manned mission to Mars. But some nation should just go ahead and plan the thing.

Russia doesn't have the ability as I see it. China maybe, but China tries to cheat the system, cut corners, and use cheaply made product(s). Any Chinese astronauts might be on a death mission in reference to a trip to Mars, but hey, maybe I'm wrong.

a reply to: Aleister

Maybe a joint U.S. / Chinese mission would be feasible. Chinese money and American technology. I don't think we have ever really did anything jointly with them.

If we can ever shave down our incredible military spending we will at least be on the right track. It literally sickens me that we have cut NASA's budget so much.

I know they're more issues in dire need of funding beside space exploration. But despite this we spend so foolishly. We can't focus some of that energy policing ourselves and the world to death to investigate the wonders of our universe?

Have we lost all our passion?

I still get that tight nervous feeling in my chest when I think about the discoveries we will one day make that will shake the very foundation of our perceived reality and understanding.

I think we do need another space race. That's if we can manage not weaponizing it.

How do I cut to first in line? I am healthy, intelligent, and have balls of steel. Let's roll.

It will most likely be a private enterprise that gets to Mars with humans. Governments take too long to decide anything, spend too much on it, and have too much bureaucracy to get it done efficiently.

Just like corporations will be the first to mine asteroids for their trillions of dollars worth of minerals.

Governments only see as far as the next elections, private enterprise generally see farther into the future. sad but true.

a reply to: lostbook

Ugh.

Until we have another leap in technology (next 30 years) the MOON is the most practical. In fact, we could have a permanent construction on the MOON for research, habitation, and much more with our current tech!

The only thing would be return trips because living with the Moon's gravity would probably create bodily issues/muscular atrophy etc.

Well, these guys aren't a space agency. All they can do really at this point is conferences, research, proposals, etc. Unless commercial space flight really gets up and running, it's up to the big government to build the big rocket and send people to Mars.

The actual manned flight to Mars might only happen in a decade or two, so you will hear about plenty of such conferences and proposals until then.

originally posted by: rjbaggins
a reply to: Aleister

Maybe a joint U.S. / Chinese mission would be feasible. Chinese money and American technology. I don't think we have ever really did anything jointly with them.

Wouldn't that be a wonderful solution and a great team! Very nice thought and idea. It can even have a combined name for the mission. It's about time for the world to team up and do a mission like this, as well as toss those rovers up to various moons and planets like confetti in the air ("they" should be sending thirty rovers to Mars, dozens to the moons of Mars, etc.) and design and launch the best and next several generations of space science telescopes.

I believe this might be completely new talk about Mars mission, because scientists have workout to get people @ fraction of the cost what used to be, due to changes in mission plan.

IIRC, they are reviewing to start by sending return spacecraft first, extract fuel from mars for return from atmosphere and once ready and everything checks out, send real mission.

Cost should be fraction of what previous estimate was, due to not carrying all that extra language and fuel.

I am sure there are links around here about this, as I remember reading about this here.

I believe this might be completely new talk about Mars mission, because scientists have workout to get people @ fraction of the cost what used to be, due to changes in mission plan.

IIRC, they are reviewing to start by sending return spacecraft first, extract fuel from mars for return from atmosphere and once ready and everything checks out, send real mission.

Cost should be fraction of what previous estimate was, due to not carrying all that extra language and fuel.

I am sure there are links around here about this, as I remember reading about this here.

These guys are going to do it by 2023 they are a private corporation.

www.mars-one.com...

NASA is good at research, but as already noted, there is so muck lack of clear direction, and when they do go in a direction new leaders take the government and have their own agenda sending our space programs into chaos, defund and redirect, its really becoming sad.

"Human Settlement on Mars Mars One designed a mission using only existing technology. In the coming years, a demonstration mission, communication satellites, two rovers and several cargo missions will be sent to Mars. A reliable living environment will be waiting for the astronauts when they leave Earth."
- See more at: www.mars-one.com...

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