Mi$$ion to Mars = Mission of Ignorance?
As most of you might know, on the 15th Jan. president George W Bush announced "his vision" of future 
American space explorations, unveiling his Moon & Mars plans. Here is a short summary:
He announced, that the United States will send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020. Humans will live and work on the Moon to prepare for exploration further afield such as on Mars, he said. Russia and China also have ambitions for new space exploration but some argue that future trips are best left to robots like the rover now on Mars.
President Bush's "new vision" for American space exploration calls on the United States to:
"It is time for America to take the next steps... and extend a human presence across our Solar System," Bus
h said. "Human beings are headed into the cosmos."
Mr Bush added that he wanted a new era of discovery but not a new space race.
However, scientists in Russia, whose spacecraft currently service the ISS, announced on Wednesday that they had plans for manned flights to Mars within a decade.
"Technically, the first flight by earthlings to Mars could take place as early as 2014," said Leonid Gorshkov, a designer at the Russian space corporation Energiya. Mr Gorshkov put the cost at about $15bn, saying that America planned to spend 10 time that amount on its Mars programme.
China plans to put an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2010.
The White House estimates that the Moon plans will require an extra $12bn over the next five years. Mr Bush would ask for a 5% yearly increase in Nasa's $15.4bn annual budget for the next three years, followed by rises of up to 1% in subsequent years.
A total estimate for the cost of sending astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars was not given - and will have to be approved by Mr Bush's successors in the White House.
The president announced the development of a new craft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, presented as the first since the Apollo spaceships to take humans to new worlds.
The president's father proposed sending men to Mars when he was in office in 1989, but the project went nowhere after its cost was estimated at up to $500bn.
Now, do you really think this is a wise decision?? I can see that I get quite a lot of hits from the USA itself, so what do you Americans think? The media claims that most Americans are proud of their "pioneering zeal". Is that the case? If so, what are the benefits of such a mission? What the heck is the point?? Do they make billion $$$ notes of toilet paper inside the white house or what??
Sure, this whole thing sounds interesting & exciting, but it costs billions!! Do we have billions lying around and don't know what to do with these, so that we just decide to take a short trip to outer space & enjoy the beautiful view.
I believe that we have enough problems on our own planet and shld invest money into environmental protection projects, against hunger & starvation, social justice and so on.
What I don't get is that even in the United States the number of people living in poverty is quite high, but still I can't hear any public outcry, that these kind of space expeditions are a waste of tax payers money and resources. It's like spitting on human kind or planet earth.
But probably the same corporations that profit from war also get these billions spend on space technology, or at least part of it. 'Cos we shouldn't forget, the money doesn't just disappear, it just changes hands - not to forget that this is part of the election campaign.
Of course the same goes for other countries like Russia and China, who spend billions on space research too and are also developing missions to the Moon or Mars. These countries are even poorer, or let's just say the people living there (in average), but that doesn't stop them from putting so much money into space research. And some people are even proud of that.
*facts and quotes taken from BBC
How do we spread the resources in this world? How shall the billion$ be spend?
~peace~
