Countdown: Curiousity Mars landing

[Rhodes]

Hoax, it's all a hoax!!! All photoshop and theatre!

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Rhodes

Hoax, it's all a hoax!!! All photoshop and theatre!

Oh man, not another one.

[Betonov]

Mars orbiter sees Curiosity's parachute deployed from above

[razark]

Originally Posted by Rhodes

Hoax, it's all a hoax!!! All photoshop and theatre!

It was all filmed on a soundstage on the Moon!

[mapuc]

Will we see an another race in space, like the one between USA and USSR?

I think so, only this time it will be between USA and China- I think that after China have put a man on the Moon(if not the alien prevent them to do so ) -they will go further and go for Mars

For America it will be a real blow if China is the first country to put a man on Mars and not them.

Markus

[Platapus]

It will be a long time before China can send a man to Mars.

For some of us here, we will be dead by the time the US sends men to Mars.

[Gargamel]

Actually, I think china beating the us/ESA/rus to mars might be a good thing for those space agencies.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Platapus

It will be a long time before China can send a man to Mars.

For some of us here, we will be dead by the time the US sends men to Mars.

Not for want of manpower, I think there are thousands of people who would volunteer to go to Mars, of course, out of them only perhaps 25% would be fit enough to be able to actually go...but that's still at least two hundred people.
If only we could put the kind of energy that put a man on the moon into putting a man onto Mars, and then further on.

We have the technology, we have the manpower, we have the need, but we've built such complex walls and rules around advancement and technology based upon finance that it is choking us.

I hope I live to see pictures of mankinds first step on Mars, I really do.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Oberon

We have the technology, we have the manpower, we have the need, but we've built such complex walls and rules around advancement and technology based upon finance that it is choking us.

I am not sure we have the technology at this point. Traveling to Mars is not like just a longer moon trip. It is pretty complicated.

I will agree that we have the people though.

About that need thing? Honestly, I feel it is a very low need and more a desire than a need.

I feel that a lot more can be learned about Mars by orbiters and rovers than by anyone planting a flag and picking up a few rocks. Once we have exhausted our ability to extract information from unmanned missions, only then should we consider manned missions.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I am not sure we have the technology at this point. Traveling to Mars is not like just a longer moon trip. It is pretty complicated.

I will agree that we have the people though.

About that need thing? Honestly, I feel it is a very low need and more a desire than a need.

I feel that a lot more can be learned about Mars by orbiters and rovers than by anyone planting a flag and picking up a few rocks. Once we have exhausted our ability to extract information from unmanned missions, only then should we consider manned missions.

The worry I have is that as our population continues to grow unhindered and our drain on resources does as well, unless we have a population level out as per the theory put forward (very well) by Hans Rosling and we manage to wean ourselves off oil then the next fifty years are looking very shakey for us. We will either turn inwards and fight ourselves to death, or look outwards and head into space, and quite honestly I can't say for certain which way we will swing, at the moment it's certainly looking like the former rather than the latter.
Furthermore, the problems with being limited to one planet are immense, we have a very fragile hold and with one virus, one asteroid, one global nuclear exchange, everything we have done for the past two thousand years, gone. The human race would survive, but our progress would be put back by several generations. It'd be like walking up to the very edge of the pool and then being kicked in the balls before you can jump into the water.
Now in terms of technology, I think our primary problem is logistics, drive systems we have a few and lots of theories that lack funding to become either fact or fiction, and people wouldn't be a problem. It would be feeding and watering those people that would be the biggest problem I'd say. Journey time to Mars and back could be reduced significantly if we turned our nuclear weapons into fuel for an Orion drive vessel, constructed in orbit in order to avoid the distasteful (but minimal) nuclear fallout generated in a land-based launch.
From there the possibilities are only as limited as we make them, Orion drive ships could take us to Alpha Centauri, and beyond! And unlike most advanced drive systems out there, work could begin on an Orion drive tomorrow if certain treaties were worked around.
I just worry that if we don't get our collective arses in gear within the next century then it'll be too late for us.
Alternatively, it could just be a selfish instinct to want to be alive to see these things take place.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Platapus

It will be a long time before China can send a man to Mars.

For some of us here, we will be dead by the time the US sends men to Mars.

You're probably right, that's too bad.

Nice video of the complex landing sequence
7 Minutes of Terror

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

You're probably right, that's too bad.

Nice video of the complex landing sequence
7 Minutes of Terror

Are you sure that's Mars? Sure looks like Wyoming in the summer.

[eddie]

Apathy sets in fast Oberon. I was doing some reading about the Apollo 13 flight, it took place just short of 9 months after Apollo 11's historic landing. They were going to have a live TV broadcast from the spacecraft (this was before the explosion) but the networks wouldn't broadcast it because they didn't have enough people interested in seeing it. Not enough interest to interrupt the soap operas,lol But, after the explosion, and the astronauts lives were at stake, then everyone took interest!