First Men on Mars

[e-freak]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12453422

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12446405

the test is on it's highpoint right now Can't wait until this becomes real!

[Serenius]

Sweetness! One step closer to opening a gateway to hell on Mars.

[dux]

"But there isn't enough money"

Space flight and exploration shouldn't cost money, this is going to be our salvation one day I think. The sooner they can do stuff without the constraints of a stupid budget, the better.

[Thrik]

Well someone needs to make all the stuff they need, so the money needs to come from somewhere — whether that be paying the company that supplies the UltraRocket2000 metal or the guy who has to dig the ore out in the first place. Until everyone is willing to work for free it'll never be costless.

Which is a shame because I really want to go cruise some galaxies.

[dux]

Just get it all from china, they work for peanuts. Or they can get the first go in the rocket ship.

[-HP-]

Just make sure you don't hire a certain Doctor Betruger for the expedition.

[Minos]

The day Russia lands the first men on Mars will be the best day of D3ad's life.

[Sentura]

Sweetness! One step closer to opening a gateway to hell on Mars.

you mean so we can find the mass effect gate and get the hell out of here right

[the0rthopaedicsurgeon]

"But there isn't enough money"

Space flight and exploration shouldn't cost money, this is going to be our salvation one day I think. The sooner they can do stuff without the constraints of a stupid budget, the better.

The Apollo programme made back $14 for every dollar the US spent on it. They probably wouldn't get back so much these days because it was all totally new at the time, but you'd make so much money from a mission to Mars (and eventually asteroid mining, I think one asteroid contains several times the USA's total wealth in raw materials). The problem is that the money would be made through jobs, research etc which wouldn't be obvious to the public. That's why they waste money sending people into orbit to do pointless experiments on the ISS, because it's the easiest way for NASA to show they're actually spending their (tiny) budget on something.

[Seldoon182]

I'm pretty sure USA will landing on mars before the Russian!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VASIMR

29 days with this technology instead of 8 mouths!

[e-freak]

problem is - on both sides of the fence they rather invest in rockets that can fly to the next country than to the next planet. i remember reading in 2000 about possibilities to going to mars within the decade. plans changed since then, although sometimes they look similar:

[⌐■_■]

looks like it's about damn time we create an alien enemy then.