2nd_city_saint787 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 (edited) QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 07:34 PM) China is not "Much closer to Mars" than the U.S. They could get ahead of the US eventually, if the U.S. continues to cut back on its space exploration budget and they expand theirs. However, that's no where close to true now. We may need a joint Opp to do it, but that's only because the U.S. is gutting its space exploration budgets. I'm just saying what I heard from the guy who works for NASA so ya. The video should be on the Aots website tomorrow, I'll post it. Good interview, even though the guy doing the interview is a tool. He also said next December, we'll have something orbiting Mars. Also maybe the "much" word was a bit of an overreaction but I did hear theyre closer. Edited August 13, 2012 by 2nd_city_saint787 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 07:42 PM) I'm just saying what I heard from the guy who works for NASA so ya. The video should be on the Aots website tomorrow, I'll post it. Good interview, even though the guy doing the interview is a tool. He also said next December, we'll have something orbiting Mars. Also maybe the "much" word was a bit of an overreaction but I did hear theyre closer. We currently have several things orbiting Mars. One of them took a great picture earlier in this thread. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey are the 2 currently active ones, both of which also are used to relay data from the rovers to Earth, since the Rovers can't point to Earth directly. The next thing we'll be sending to Mars is called "MAVEN", The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN probe. Its a small NASA mission, Discovery class. Its goal is to see how the atmosphere of Mars interacts with the solar wind...Mars used to have an atmosphere, it's lost now, and really we don't know quite how fast it's been lost or what the mechanisms of loss were. MAVEN's job is to figure out what interactions take place and how fast the atmosphere was lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2nd_city_saint787 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 07:52 PM) We currently have several things orbiting Mars. One of them took a great picture earlier in this thread. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey are the 2 currently active ones, both of which also are used to relay data from the rovers to Earth, since the Rovers can't point to Earth directly. The next thing we'll be sending to Mars is called "MAVEN", The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN probe. Its a small NASA mission, Discovery class. Its goal is to see how the atmosphere of Mars interacts with the solar wind...Mars used to have an atmosphere, it's lost now, and really we don't know quite how fast it's been lost or what the mechanisms of loss were. MAVEN's job is to figure out what interactions take place and how fast the atmosphere was lost. Yup Mavens what he mentioned, and you described it exactly how he did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 China is still developing rockets with the lift Capacity of a US Delta rocket, and that still doesn't measure up to the legendary Saturn V. If money keeps going to the Space Launch System, which will hopefully multiply our launch weight capacity by something like a factor of 5, then the US will have the rocket to pull off people outside of the Earth Moon system. The goal for that is ~2020. Will it happen? That's up to Congress and the Voters this November. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 02:49 PM) The supposed goal is in the 2030's. With the current round of budget cuts, I'd say most people are skeptical. Seriously? How do they propose on making this happen? Are they going to build some sort of bubble that we can live on that is airconditioned, etc? 20-30 years from now seems incredibly optimistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) Seriously? How do they propose on making this happen? Are they going to build some sort of bubble that we can live on that is airconditioned, etc? 20-30 years from now seems incredibly optimistic. That's why the date keeps getting pushed back. At some level yes, that's what you'd need to do: create a habitat, probably so that you can produce fuel On the surface, hence the need for heavy lift rockets. But if you're going there, you put the people there for 6 months or more just because the trip there is so long. Honestly, if the money was there, 2030 would probably be beatable. But it's kinda pricey. Apollo was a Manhattan Project level commitment. We just landed a river on Mars for 1/6 the cost of the Olympics because that's all the money available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiSox_Sonix Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Isn't there some private Dutch company aiming to do it in the next 10-12 years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 14, 2012 -> 08:33 AM) Isn't there some private Dutch company aiming to do it in the next 10-12 years? I'm sure there is, and I'm sure no one believes it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiSox_Sonix Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 14, 2012 -> 08:56 AM) I'm sure there is, and I'm sure no one believes it. 2023 is their goal - one way tickets to Mars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoSox05 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 I was hoping it would be sooner then 30 years. I wonder if will be a bigger deal than when we landed on the moon. I bet the Soviet Union is already there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 14, 2012 -> 10:07 AM) I was hoping it would be sooner then 30 years. Getting it done is at least 75% about "is the money there or not". Right now, it's not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 The rocket capacity needs to be dramatically increased above the Saturn V, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 14, 2012 -> 10:28 AM) The rocket capacity needs to be dramatically increased above the Saturn V, right? If it works, here's your building block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2nd_city_saint787 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 (edited) QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 07:29 PM) There was someone from NASA on Attack of the show...He said it's always been "30 years away" and apparently still is. I guess China is much closer to it than the US and have made "great strides" towards it. He says he thinks we need to make it a joint opp with China to make it happen. Here's the video I was talking about.....Guess he wrote a book called "Destination Mars" and doesn't work for NASA like I thought. Edited August 17, 2012 by 2nd_city_saint787 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxbadger Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Even with current technology its probably close to doable just with a high risk. Without a cold war enemy most people in the US just dont seem to care that we are falling behind on science investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 Whatever "Today" counts as, they're firing the laser up today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 HD Video of landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoSox05 Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 These pictures are great. The Clearest Images Of Another Planet You've Ever Seen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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