

Report: Mars is Only Justification for Human Spaceflight Beyond Earth Orbit - cryptoz
http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/40793report-says-mars-landing-is-only-justification-for-human-spaceflight-beyond

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ufmace
The capabilities they outline seem to vary widely in potential difficulty. I
think 3 of them are clearly the most difficult:

Mars landing tech - we've never landed any really large weights on a planet
with gravity on the same order of magnitude as Earth and no atmosphere. This
is gonna be tough to build and expensive to test

Liftoff from Mars - What kind of craft will we need to get the crew back to
Mars orbit from the surface? Will we be able to land it ready for launch, or
will it have to be partially constructed and fueled on Mars? How will we build
the infrastructure needed to do that?

Technology for living on Mars for an extended amount of time - if people are
going to be living on Mars for months or more, as seems likely, then we're
going to need to build a much more substantial habitat on Mars than anything
we've ever built before. How will we go about transporting and constructing
that?

Everything else sounds like something we've already done, just expanded a bit,
like bigger rockets, nicer space suits, better radiation shielding for the
interplanetary craft, etc.

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pavelrub
That's a very weird headline. The report doesn't question the importance of
"human spaceflight beyond earth orbit". It surveys possible destinations and
concludes that mars and its moons are the only places in the solar system we
have any hope of reaching within the foreseeable future (does that surprise
anybody?), and therefore that's what NASA should focus on.

The report's main point is that a _major_ increase in NASA's funding, as well
as an increase in political support and international cooperation, is required
for this to happen.

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ianstallings
It's a shame the report is myopically focused on the bean-counting aspect of
the prospect and ignoring the obvious benefit to the human spirit, and in turn
society as a whole. Just as we spend on monuments, we should spend on
adventures that ring throughout history. People remember explorers and they
give us hope. I know that sounds whimsical but I really believe it.

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InclinedPlane
Indeed. Perhaps the most significant problem with modern civilization is not
anything like hunger or poverty or even war, it's pessimism. I see it all the
time among the "intelligentsia", the idea that human civilization is a blight
more than a wonder, that the same applies to human population even more so,
and that it would be more or less best if humans could please just stop doing
things and leave stuff alone, really. This reflects a hugely negative attitude
about humanity as a whole and our prospect for the future.

I believe we have a future full of wonder, adventure, cultural enrichment,
self-discovery, and so much more ahead of us. But it won't come for free, we
have to work for it, and we're much less likely to put in the work if we waste
our efforts feeling defeated and sorry for ourselves.

