Has man really walked on the moon?...

[scared?]

Seems more and more unlikely as time goes on eh?...or no u(me)?...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mobilew ... 35339.html

[andyman]

at this point, your posts have nowhere to go but up

[Eraser]

...to the moon

[SoM]

...to the moon

on the dark side

[seremtan]

when they say "focus on Mars" they mean send more orbital satellites and unmanned surface vehicles. there's no way NASA is ever going to lead a project to send humans to Mars, not when America can only afford to spend $700bn on the military and couldn't possibly spare any pennies for space adventures

[Transient]

Yep, going from 0.5% to 0.7% of our budget is too much to ask.

[Whiskey 7]

Yep, going from 0.5% to 0.7% of our budget is too much to ask.

They are sad numbers for what could be a monumental leap for Mankind

[Transient]

A private venture will get people there before NASA, that's for sure.

[Whiskey 7]

A private venture will get people there before NASA, that's for sure.

Quite an interesting thought (read wish).

[scared?]

The point is...WE NEVERR WENT!!!111z...

[GONNAFISTYA]

A private venture will get people there before NASA, that's for sure.

Great...now we can have a corporation claim it and sell out plots of land and threaten war with their PMC militaries shooting on anyone who gets close for any reason, including pure scientific research.

You think that won't happen, think again.

I'd rather have governments (ie "the people") fund and do this sort of thing. We really don't want to open Pandora's box because we know exactly what we'll get. Fuck that.

[Tsakali]

if a private corporation makes it out there all on their own, there is pretty much nothing we can do to object otherwise.

Honestly, if a corporation is big enough to bring man to Mars, we wouldn't be talking about a corporation simply, rather a new definition will have to be created for a private entity of that nature. 'Private entity' might need redefining as well. Such corporation will be woven in the fabric of global economy on a scale that would have surely generated opposition, civil unrest and possibly a near WW3 scenario, during the history of its making.

The future 'corporations' that will be mining the heavens will be in the position to generate so much economic 'energy' that the global population will have to grow in order to sustain it. well, it will be a chicken / egg situation where they both need each other in order to really take off.

[obsidian]

lol... stringing lots of random words together doesn't make a point, nor does it make you look intelligent. Just WTF are you trying to say?

[obsidian]

I'd rather have governments (ie "the people") fund and do this sort of thing. We really don't want to open Pandora's box because we know exactly what we'll get. Fuck that.

Agreed. I'm already sick of corporations naming public spaces, buildings, stadiums, concert halls, etc. after them. Last thing we need is the planet Exxon Mobil and Chase moon base.

[Tsakali]

lol... stringing lots of random words together doesn't make a point, nor does it make you look intelligent. Just WTF are you trying to say?

y so mad bro? I don't remember hurting your feelings.

[obsidian]

It seems "u mad bro" is the new "no u".

Why don't you go figure out a proper retort and then come back and join us at the adult's table for a proper discussion?

[Tsakali]

K lets make it a bit more clear. A company with lots of money will need to have source of income other than just "getting man to mars" or "space tech" as a target...because Mars as a target for profit will need a long, long reaching ROI plan. A company that is in that position is surely not gambling it all for some foggy idea of future profits. They would have to be really well off in other venues b4 even attempting to make 'mars trip' a conversation.
I don't think there are any companies out there right now that can realistically even attempt a 'man to mars' mission, because the overhead is too high even for the biggest of them.

A company that can have that amount of weight will surely be doing global business in a scale that is not really sustainable in today's market... almost like not enough eggs to go around to fill that type of company basket. So a company like that will not come any time soon, until population and needs grow, or they need to be servicing a big percentage of the current population's needs. A company like that will change the norms of doing business, and will surely create alot of wake on its way there. A company like this , if it succeeds in growing to that level, will be in a position to work completely independent of any set of laws set by government or anyone else.

A company like that will without question be in a position to call 'dibs' on mars.

Then I went on to reflect on the reality of (higher population = more potential for giant companies to exist), hence greater and greater potential for far (not a measurement of distance) outreaching projects / targets.



In even simpler words:
yeah a company that is capable of doing that independently will most definitely call dibs. It's not a possibility , it's a given.

[Tsakali]

To add to that, I find it interesting that companies on that scale will be able to make decisions that will effect the future of man kind. They would potentially be elevating human kind through the simple process of personal gain. Governments are too politically clusterfucted to allow the right people in place to make the right calls that would look forward towards our betterment. It seems that it will have to take a large scale private entity to do the forward thinking for us... to construct a path of growth and prosperity ... for their own personal gain and profit ... Sadly, human nature's most capable force as we stand.

[Eraser]

Tsakali, where you are wrong is that you make a trip to mars look like something that's near impossible to reach, while reality is that we already have multiple privately funded projects under way to get people to mars.

See:
http://www.mars-one.com/en
and
http://www.space.com/19981-private-mars ... -2018.html

[Eraser]

Also, you look like a moron because you're speculating about stuff you know nothing about and state pure drivel as fact.

[Tsakali]

k

[Theftbot]

Its amazing what they did out in the white sands Desert

[seremtan]

Why don't you go figure out a proper retort and then come back and join us at the adult's table for a proper discussion?

your own contribution to this thread hasn't exactly been stellar so far though, has it?

[seremtan]

Tsakali, where you are wrong is that you make a trip to mars look like something that's near impossible to reach, while reality is that we already have multiple privately funded projects under way to get people to mars.

See:
http://www.mars-one.com/en
and
http://www.space.com/19981-private-mars ... -2018.html

Mars as an destination for super-wealthy space hobbyists is very doable; however, hobbyists - unlike corporate sponsors - don't care about ROI, which i think is the point Tsackballi was trying to make

that said, i doubt the first primitive guy who looked across the bay at an island and thought "i wonder what's out there" went back to his tribe to raise seashells for funding. he probably just found a log, and a stick for a paddle, and got on with it

as good as it would be to see private individuals take up the slack, we shouldn't forget that every milestone in space exploration to date has been achieved by the public sector - Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, Apollo, Space Shuttle, ISS, Curiosity - and even today the only way to get astronauts to the ISS is on top of a Russian Space Agency Soyuz rocket. national space agencies shouldn't be written off just yet

[obsidian]

Why don't you go figure out a proper retort and then come back and join us at the adult's table for a proper discussion?

your own contribution to this thread hasn't exactly been stellar so far though, has it?

I haven't been making up random shit about WWIII and global conglomerates enslaving billions of people and calling it a point of fact, now have I. Your posting behaviour seems to indicate that you think of yourself as someone dumping lighter fluid on everything, handing everyone box fulls of matches and then pretending to be the heroic fire department here to save the day. Get off your high horse, it's already been buried 6 feet under.