Mars.
A NASA panel is studying the future of American manned space flight. You should read that as background to this:
I believe that if we, as a nation, are not going to commit to sending humans deeper into space, then we should de-orbit the International Space Station when its time is up and then forget about going back into space. One of the worst presidents in our nation's history derailed this country from going further into space than low orbit and we have been stuck there ever since Apollo 17.
The ISS has been good for some things, such as experience with zero-gravity construction, but other than building the ISS, was there a real use for building the ISS in the first place? There may have been some good data generated on long-duration space flight, but wasn't that already available from MIR?
Low orbit spaceflight is a dead end. It is the choice of a bunch of cheap-jack unimaginative politicians and bureaucrats. It would be akin to Queen Isabella telling Columbus that he could go explore the oceans, but she was only going to give him three Sunfish.
We either ought to commit to flying manned missions outside of Earth's gravity well, including committing to the increased funding required, or forget about sending Americans into space anytime soon.
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2 comments:
Miss Fit:
I've pretty much concluded, with great regret and reluctance, that we should terminate NASA's manned space flight programs. De-orbit the ISS, fire the astronaut corps, set the shuttles up as gate guards at JSC, KSC and U-H, pare the workforce back to the guards, the sweepers and the archivists. Reprogram the released funds to unmanned programs.
American society no longer has the intellectual capacity for real challenges -- and therefore won't support the level of funding necessary to do the job right. It was an E-Ticket ride for 50 years, but it's over. We have no future and we don't deserve heroes.
Damn, now I'm depressed.
Frank
The cost of the entire Apollo Space Program was $135 billion in 2005 dollars.
The Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers cost $820 million, plus $124 million for mission extensions. Less than one billion dollars over 6 years.
According to http://costofwar.com/, the Iraq War has cost $673 billion to date. Imagine what we could have done with that $673 billion had it been applied to the space program?
At this rate, I doubt we'll ever see a man walk on Mars in my lifetime. The people who look up at the starsand see opportunity are far outnumberd by the cynics and silenced by the realities of cost. When there's so much wrong on the ground, the sky looks cloudy and unimportant.
What we lack in ambition, we also lack in fear. We don't have a "space race". We don't have anyone to beat to the Moon. Or to Mars. There's no one trying to turn the Moon a shade of "red".
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