Imagine how much science we could do and how quickly we could do it if we had human explorers on Mars. I'm not complaining about the Rovers by any means. I understand that we need robotic missions to learn how to send humans to the red planet. But as you follow the painfully slow process using rovers I can't help but to find myself imagining how much and how fast we would discover and understand things there. A human could walk over to a rock, pick it up, run a few tests and learn in ten minutes what it may take days to do remotely with a rover. I bet one human mission, if successful, could learn more on one mission than 100 rovers could. Especially things like "what color is mars to the human eye?". I think the cost of a human mission would be worth it just based on the fact that we would get many robotic missions worth of info in one manned mission.

Your thoughts?

I'm onboard!!! I think I am one of the few, in my circle of associates/friends who find these missions to Mars worthwhile and worth the American dollars we are spending. While it is still years away, it does give us something to shoot for. Like Americans wanting to go to the moon in the 60s, we have Mars to look forward to.

NASA is unsure about Mars actual enviroment ie sans any little pesky creatures that might come out at night, etc.

Even with the rovers we dont know, there is three windows of time that NASA can send instructions to the rovers to do stuff. They have an automated program as well but its timed with the same three windows.

Do you think the rovers are "on" and conducting photograph sessions at night ?

They really do not know exactly whats on Mars yet.

What if you send a manned mission to Mars and the lander lands in an area that has a subterreanen "creature" living under it, that is capable of coming to the surface when it detects seismic activity. Hence a giant worm that has no eyes and lives most of its life underground. But could represent a huge threat to a space craft, men etc. We don't know

Maybe a rover will come up missing, its possible, but that's why the rover missions are important to try and do discovery as to the total threat to a possible manned mission. What if the rover gets suddenly pelted with cosmic mico rocks and is severly damaged. What if this happend to a manned lander, making it inoperable and commiting the astronaughts to their deaths. How would the US goverment deal with the questions of why we did not know that could be a threat and be unprepared with a back up plan to get them off Mars.

These are the things that stop NASA from sending a manned mission to Mars right now

Thought there was a "creature" resting in the shade, under the lander...

there just might be.....

Its a chance I would be willing to take.

Although I think there might be simple life forms on mars I doubt there is something large enough to be a treat in that manner, much more likely are new microbes that would pose a threat.

But still a chance I would take in a heartbeat