Mars

[UriBentMySpoon]

I know it might have been lost under all the Olympics stuff but there has recently been a successful landing on Mars. I thought that might stir up some excitement?

I really want us to get a manned mission to Mars, I wasn't around for the Moon landing, I want to see something as equally spectacular as that event in my own lifetime.

 

[joe-90]

Nothing will top the moon landing, it is the first time that man has ever left his planet and returned, how do you top that? Mars would be clever - but not in the same league. The computing power they had was ridiculous.

It was Man's finest hour.

 

[UriBentMySpoon]

Hard thing to beat, but Mars is further away, technically a lot more difficult to plan for/achieve with a lot more problems to overcome, (management of supplies and isolation over months), whilst I will not disagree that the Moon landing is our finest hour up to press, to go to Mars will be as equally impressive and as worthy of admiration. Was the first flight across the Channel more impressive than say the first flight across the Atlantic, or around the world? Each achievement, whilst admittedly built on what has been done before, is equally as worthy of celebration.

Also on a personal note, IF I do see the Mars landing that is going to mean more to me than the Moon landing simply because I was there to witness it.[/u]

 

[joe-90]

Don't hold your breath, it's over forty years since we went to the moon. The odds are that the Mars lander will be filled with Chinamen.

 

[doitall]

The question is did they land on the moon and if so how did they get through the radiation belt twice assuming they came back as well.

 

[UriBentMySpoon]

I've got forty years (theoretically), I know the Russians are doing experiments geared towards isolation to see if we can manage it. They had a mock space craft and all communications had a delay to simulate the delays in communication as we get further out into space, has that experiment finished yet?

And who cares what Nationality gets there first? Surely is the achievement that matters.

 

[UriBentMySpoon]

The question is did they land on the moon and if so how did they get through the radiation belt twice assuming they came back as well.

I hope you have raised this question in the spirit of fun and not to give the whole conspiracy theory some credence?

What has been pointed out about the radiation, (if you ignore all the scare stories) is that the radiation is most likely to effect the eyes.

All the Apollo astronauts who have ventured through the radiation have suffered with cataract problems etc.

 

[doitall]

Yes I happen to think they landed, simply because the Russian also said they did, and somehow I don't think the yanks and them would conspire together.

I have a cataract in both eyes, you don't think !!

 

[chapeau]

I remember collecting the pg tips cards on the space race when i was a wee nipper and the final card was the planned manned trip to mars. i think they had it scheduled for 1980, at the time it was considered possible.

Now there isn't enough money to do it and we would get better results by sending robots. Robotics can only get better but not long before they will be smarter than us and start refusing to go!

 

[doitall]

Now there isn't enough money to do it and we would get better results by sending robots. Robotics can only get better but not long before they will be smarter than us and start refusing to go!

I hope their PCB are better than Potterton boiler.

 

[chapeau]

They put two of em on that mars buggy. just in case the first one goes wonky on Christmas day. can never get a fitter out for love nor money when that happens

 

[ladylola]

The question is did they land on the moon and if so how did they get through the radiation belt twice assuming they came back as well.

Course they landed , you can see the flag waving in the solar winds

 

[longdogs]

Glad you brought the subject up Uri, however amazing our universe is, it always seems to take a back seat compared to all the cr*p that goes on in the world. My ideal trip would be to fly to the moon and look back at the earth for a few hours and then maybe on to mars to see the earth as a dot. I might even consider going on further and never come back.

 

[raebhoop]

Don't hold your breath, it's over forty years since we went to the moon. The odds are that the Mars lander will be filled with Chinamen.

Gag told by David Frost fifty years ago...

"I have good news and bad news...The bad news is the Chinese have landed on the moon..The good news is..All of them."

 

[UriBentMySpoon]

Glad you brought the subject up Uri, however amazing our universe is, it always seems to take a back seat compared to all the cr*p that goes on in the world. My ideal trip would be to fly to the moon and look back at the earth for a few hours and then maybe on to mars to see the earth as a dot. I might even consider going on further and never come back.

There was a hope and hope it definately was, that the Moon landing would make the world see how petty we are thinking on a National scales when for the first time ever we had set foot on something that wasn't our own planet.

My idealistic hope is that going to Mars may just do this. But it really is dreaming. Our ignorance towards each other will get in the way.

I wouldn't mind floating off myself.