Life On Mars..?

[Chris Bates]

FoFP wrote:

> J Strobridge writes:

> > funding would come from.   I understand that the current odds of a
> > manned Mars expedition before the end of this millenium were (a few weeks
> > ago) standing at 50:1.   Quick flutter anyone?
>
> Those are pretty ungenerous odds. Nobody is even close to building a
> system capable of a Mars flight at the moment. I doubt that even with
> shitloads of money and all the political will in the world that anyone
> could put together a launch in this millenium.

I thought that the Americans were channelling their resources into
the space station. If you want to go to Mars then you'll have a
massive payload which would be far easier to launch from space. Simply
take it up in a series of smaller loads. So we won't (IMHO) see a
Mars-mission until after the space-station has been properly
established.

>From NASAs point of view it's well worth reminding the politicians
that space isn't all *Independance Day* though. Especially in an
election year!


Chris