Quote:
Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek
I missed this one. It's not just a frozen rock, PhiGam.  Mars has a lot of great scenery. It actually has mountains three times as tall as Mount Everest, canyons three times as deep and five times as long as the Grand Canyon. It also has a ton of dry riverbeds. You also need to look at the fact that its unexplored surface may hold unimagined resources for future humanity, as well as answers to some of the deepest philosophical questions that thinking women and men have pondered on for eons. I honestly think Mars may someday provide a home for a dynamic new branch of human civilization. I also think with future human settlement and growth there, it will provide an engine of progress for all of humanity for generations to come. But all that Mars holds will remain beyond reach unless and until women and men land there. You would be surprised, temperatures on Mars can get pretty warm. Mars also has water frozen into its soil, as well as large quantities of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, all in forms readily accessible to those inventive enough to use them. Also, these four elements are not only the basis of food and water, but of plastics, wood, paper, clothing, etc etc. You can also get rocket fuel out of those same elements too. That doesn't sound like a frozen rock to me. |
So spending billions of dollars is warranted because:
1. There are tall mountains and dry riverbeds
2. There
may be resources there (although there is no evidence showing this)
3. They have large quantities of the most commonly occuring elements on earth.
Sorry, I'm not drinking your kool aid on this one. Mars exploration is fine- when our economy isn't in the crapper. The money that would be needed for a Mars mission would be better invested in education or a second stimulus package. Going to Mars itself probably won't do much for us- simply because such a mission is very hard to pull off due to the orbit of Mars v. Earth.
NASA is a great program simply because of the technological advances that are a byproduct of space exploration IMO. I think that we should be using NASA scientists (some of the brightest minds in the world) to improve upon renewable energy technologies. Last time I visited Kennedy Space Center they did have a rather large exhibit about renewable energy.