Reply #10: Hint: It has not gained acceptance because it is scientifically idiotic [View All]

[Oak2004]

The money is coming from the cancellation of countless valuable research programs, AND gutting space research is by itself not enough to fund a Mars program. It's the worst of both worlds: crippling effective research while grossly underfunding what will someday be the most technologically demanding act ever performed by humankind.

Exploring Mars is a cool idea. And it will take the equivalent of the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program, combined, to pull it off anytime soon. Before we go to Mars we'll need to do that Manhattan Project-grade research and development project in energy, not space exploration. I'm a gung-ho space exploration type, and I'm also aware that human civilization needs to survive long enough to actually pull off a Mars trip.

In the meantime we should be going forward with adventurous, scientifically sound, cost-effective plans for the robotic exploration of space -- not cancelling them or cutting them to the point where they no longer have much if any value. Such exploration is cheap, and can be done at the same time we figure out how to power modern civilization and build the new infrastructure to do it.

Bush's Mars plans are just crazy. They make no sense.