Message posted by Mark Lincoln on July 10, 2011 at 15:42:07 PST:
Andre we ARE checking Mars out and have been since the mid-1960s. We still have one operating rover working out there. It has been operating for 7 years and has delivered spectacular results. The US manned space program actually created much of the technology that has made manned space flight unnecessary. In the 1960s the technology had progressed to the point where telemetry and the development of transistorized small computers with core memory allowed us to use three men to manipulate two spacecraft, under control of a massive number of ground controllers monitoring system, to land on the moon. Even THEN it was possible to land a rover on the moon, and bring back samples of the rocks at a far lower cost. Apollo delivered much more results than Lunokhod, and much of that had to do with the bone bags being flexible and aware. Now advances in computer and programming technology allows semi-autonomous operations of rover systems across interplanetary space. The manned advantage that existed over 40 years ago no longer does. As for Joerg's comments on 'because it is there' and 'can do.' George Mallory who invented the 'because it is there' quip ended up dying trying. Can do does not mean one should do. We could have replaced the SR-71 with a higher and faster aircraft, though we were already way into the realm of diminishing returns. In the end we did not. Costs were too high. Satellites and stealthy UAVs offer a much better results at a much lower cost and risk. For purely romantic reasons I would love to see man walk on mars. I cannot make any practical arguments to do it. It seems odd now that 50-60 years ago there were dozens of new aircraft under development by as many companies. Fifty-five years ago the USA was developing four different jet airliners to be built by three different companies as well as one turbo-prop by a fourth. Now we have one company which is just getting ready to deliver the only really new design it has fielded in twenty years. The products are astoundingly better, but they take much longer to develop and cost almost unimaginable amounts to bring to market. If Boeing has bet wrong on the 787 the USA could be out of the airliner business in another generation. The days when advancement of flight or space flight was a matter of 'because it's there' or 'can do' is long past.
In Reply to: Re: OT - Last Flight Out posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on July 10, 2011 at 8:54:06 PST:
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