Space Post - Unlikely to see a man on Mars in 50-90yrs!

[Neil]

According to a National Research Council report, we're unlikely to see a man on Mars this side of 2060, if indeed even this century at current rates - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1406/04nrc/#.U5BE9qBIL5k


Without a substantial, long-term increase in funding, sustained political support across multiple administrations and extensive international participation, the United States will not be able to send humans to Mars before the middle of the century and possibly not even then, according to a National Research Council report released Wednesday.

[wayzim]

According to a National Research Council report, we're unlikely to see a man on Mars this side of 2060, if indeed even this century at current rates - http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1406/04nrc/#.U5BE9qBIL5k

Hell, we haven't even gotten our personal flying cars yet: but Mollar should have had us there by now, decades ago.
I blame the Victorian imagination of H.G.Wells, as well as George Pal and Walt Disney for raising my expectations. Also Westinghouse for some damn reason. Whoever will get us to the Red Planet eventually, just make up a reason for going and do it already.

[shootemindehead]

Destined to be the biggest anti climax since 'The Phantom Menace'.

[Neil]

Destined to be the biggest anti climax since 'The Phantom Menace'.

Maybe so... but one is important beyond belief, and the other is not.

[shootemindehead]

Oh come on, 'The Phantom Menace' wasn't that important.

[Neil]

Oh come on, 'The Phantom Menace' wasn't that important.
Nice! :)

[Trancelikestate]

Pretty sure ol Sept 11th sealed the fate on the flying cars thing. Shootme never lets me down haha. Always love to come her early in my day all super high and let you guys entertain me haha. But really though what's the point of going to mars? You're talking at least an 18 month atrophy filled prison term to get there.

[MoonSylver]

Starting figuring out some ways to make it profitable to go to Mars, or even back to the Moon (& both could be & I'm sure eventually will be), & corporations will figure out a way to get there ASAP. ;)

[Publius]

Pretty sure ol Sept 11th sealed the fate on the flying cars thing. Shootme never lets me down haha. Always love to come her early in my day all super high and let you guys entertain me haha. But really though what's the point of going to mars? You're talking at least an 18 month atrophy filled prison term to get there.

18 months? None of the unmanned flights there have taken anywhere near that long yet. The slowest has been about a year and the fastest about half that. The first manned flights might take 6-8 months, but that's only the beginning, and you have to start somewhere. More advanced propulsion techniques that are at a fairly high level of technical readiness have a reasonable chance of cutting travel time down to 1 or 2 months, which is comparable to transatlantic voyages in the sailing ship days (which was fast enough for millions of people to make the trip. That's not counting any of the theoretical propulsion systems that would require some kind of major breakthrough, which could cut the journey to a few weeks or days.

[Trancelikestate]

I was referring to the round trip I guess. And from what I understand your body breaks down at an astounding weight in zero gravity. When your muscles aren't working against gravity constantly. Really though, whats the point other than to say we did it?

[Neil]

Really though, whats the point other than to say we did it?Why live another day other than to say we did it?

But on a more serious note, because we have no choice but to. If we wish to advance and survive as a species, we need to explore and use space.