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View Full Version : When will man land on Mars?


Neil
03-Apr-2007, 11:20 AM
Arthur C Clarke was obviously miles out.. What do you recon?
MinionZombie
03-Apr-2007, 11:29 AM
2030-39 ... a completely random guess, but surely we can't be that far away from such an event.
Neil
03-Apr-2007, 11:40 AM
2030-39 ... a completely random guess, but surely we can't be that far away from such an event.

Watch the 50th anniversary Sky at Night lat night... Back in 1957 they were suggesting in the 1980s and 1990s :)
capncnut
03-Apr-2007, 12:50 PM
2040-2049. It will probably be much later.

Will the average human be able to survive the psychological aspect of the mission. The journey could take between 6-8 months and that doesn't include the actual mission itself or the trek home. Expect casualties, I'm not sure if it can even be pulled off.
Terran
03-Apr-2007, 01:03 PM
We need a couple of revolutionary ideas to get us there.....so Im going to lean to later rather than sooner.....I hope I see it happen within my "natural" lifespan....but I wouldnt be too surprised if it didnt happen in my "natural" lifespan...

Im going to go for 2070 or later.... the enviromental issues we will likely be facing in that time frame may speed up this process or slow it down horribly....
Neil
03-Apr-2007, 01:12 PM
Can you image where we might have been if the 60s/70s push into space had continued and we hadn't slowed down somewhat like we have....

Image if just the money from the Iraq invasion had been ploughed into Nasa :)
Terran
03-Apr-2007, 01:15 PM
Image if just the money from the Iraq invasion had been ploughed into Nasa :)

Oh dont even get me started!
Neil
03-Apr-2007, 01:54 PM
Oh dont even get me started!

I always remember Carl Sagan being interviewed on a UK chat show back in the 80s...

He was basically complaining how the US wasn't sending a mission to Halley's comet. He then mentioned how many B52 bombers were on order, eg: 100. (Can't recall the exact figure)

The cost of one bomber would have paid for a mission, but as he termed it, "only 99 B52 bombers would compromise national security"...
Terran
03-Apr-2007, 02:12 PM
Carl Sagan is great....that Cosmos program is one of my favorites.....though I cant seem to get anyone else I know to watch it
capncnut
03-Apr-2007, 02:24 PM
Used to watch it as a kid and I still have the book that accompanied the series. Phenomenal programme.
Neil
03-Apr-2007, 02:27 PM
Carl Sagan is great....that Cosmos program is one of my favorites.....though I cant seem to get anyone else I know to watch it

Cosmos was a BIG influence on me in the 80s... Watched the series, read the book etc.

When I did computing at college, my final project - keep in mind everyone else was doing like record collection catelog software etc - I did "Graphic Gravity Simulator".

You could define upto ten objects and the time frame/speed and it would simulate/plot their gravitation influence on each other. You could just about simulate the solar system, although over long periods it did tend to blow apart :)

The program was fully GUI (something quite unusual in the 1980s) and very interactive and intuitive... I just don't think the lecturers understood it as I didn't get marked very well for it!
Danny
03-Apr-2007, 03:45 PM
im gonna say the late end of the 20's, though i doubt it will be succesful, does crashing and burning count?:p
capncnut
03-Apr-2007, 03:57 PM
"Well, there's no one alive but at least we got there!" :lol: