What’s Up @NASA?
NASA enters the next era of spaceflight that includes developing plans to build a new rocket to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
The Space Launch System, or SLS, will power the Orion spacecraft to whatever destination NASA chooses, whether it be a near-Earth asteroid, the moon, or Mars.
@gurumagoo look, i understand where you're coming from, especially with the current economic climate and all. however, first of all, considering the US national debt is over 15 trillion now, which has basically accumulated over the past decade, 18 billion is really not all that much in the grand scheme of things. secondly, i find the notion that mankind's intrinsic sense of exploration should be stunted due to something as trivial as money to be fairly ridiculous. it is a highest priority.
@MrLegoMan88 No actually US national debt is closer to $200 trillion. Like our politicians, you've overlooked social security and other Federal entitlement obligations. Money is not trivial. We live in a world were over 15 million children starve to death every year. Spending $18 billion dollars to look for planets and study Martian dirt is not trivial, it is immoral. You're perspective might be very different were your children among those statistics.
@gurumagoo i don't think my perspective will change much, and i don't think yours will either, so we'll just leave it at that. thanks for the constructive interaction though.
@gurumagoo What do you suggest, that Humans sit on this dying planet waiting for the inevitable? At some point in the not-to-distant future the earth will be extremely over populated, and lack of resources will cause wars unlike we've ever known. Getting away from Earth and finding new habitable places is the ONLY way the human race can have a prolonged existence; Yes there are plenty of reasons we shouldn't waste money doing it, but in the long run the +'s outweigh the -'s.
Make it so. (this century, if possible)
@stokeysk8ter This planet is not dying. We're dying. Life on this world has endured cataclysms far worse than anything we could inflict upon it; and it will still be here long after everything we have built has turned to dust and not one trace of us remains. Life endures and finds a way. All we're doing is destroying the Earths ability to sustain US. When that is done, we will die, and maybe we should. Why go to a new planet if we're just going to carry all our bullshit with us?
@stokeysk8ter Technology isn't a solution to our problems. Technology IS the problem. The human race isn't going to "invent" its way to survival. The solutions to our problems are very simple, but people don't have the will or the backbone to take adavantage of those solutions. Simply surviving isn't good enough. We have to deserve to survive.
@aroblesCG Humans are NOT weak in the wild. Hominids have been apex predators on this planet for at least the last 100,000 years. We don't need to outrun or out fight other creatures. We can out think them.
@g1234538 Gotcha.
The three year journey to jupiter and three back looks prosperous it's just one year here doing everything is good.!
Nasa is great and has potential to get to mars. All we have to do is design a reusable reliable craft that can get to mars and carry a mars lander with it. this could either be a capsule like craft or a soyuz style craft or a spaceplane style craft. i think that SpaceX’s StarShip could do this job really well and carry large payloads. The space shuttle and apollo programs were awesome and we learned a lot from them. i think that StarShip is the next natural step. go NASA and go SpaceX, together we can get to mars and STAY THERE.