Ray Bradbury on the exploration of Mars

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

SF author Ray Bradbury recently spoke to a presidential commision reviewing Bush's Mars: 2020 proposal. He spoke in favour of the mission, naturally, feeling that it would give us homo saps something to focus on other than running around the planet shooting each other dead. He also pointed out that:

$1 billion a day is spent on war and conflicts. President Bush's proposal, announced in January, would be funded by $1 billion in new NASA funding each of the next five years."If we take one day each year and spend it on space travel, we could do it."

You can read the whole article here: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/04/16/moon.marscommission.ap/index.html

What do you think of his arguements? Agree/disagree?

 

[littlemissattitude]

I agree with Bradbury. We spend way too much, as a species, on killing people. I don't think a billion dollars a year on a Mars mission, as opposed to a billion a day on war (assuming this figure is correct, which I wouldn't doubt), is not too much to ask.

As for the idea that we haven't solved all our problems here on earth, so we have no business exploring space, is just the most stupid thing I've ever heard. If this formula had been adhered to, we'd all still be living in caves and huddling around the fire at night and hoping the cave bears and sabre-tooths wouldn't get us. We could solve all the problems of earth - hunger, war, pestilence - and the people advancing this argument would think of another reason why we shouldn't go.

I think I've said this on this forum before: part of the human impulse is to go exploring. And I think that, as a species, if we don't have some program of moving on to something we see faintly on the horizon, our collective spirit withers. Most of the horizons here on earth have been reached - the underwater world being the big, glaring exception - so it is natural to want to reach beyond the earth for new things to see.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I like his argument.

 

[j d worthington]

Hadn't seen this before... I like his argument, but I'm afraid until we actually start making the steps in that direction, it's going to be viewed the way space flight was until Sputnik got people a bit freaked......

Again... prove me wrong. Puh-lease, prove me wrong!

EDIT: Just came across this, incidentally:

China and Russia plan Mars mission - Yahoo! News

Title: "China and Russia plan Mars mission", from AFP, by Peter Harmsen, and datelined Wed., Mar. 28, 2007.

BEIJING (AFP) - China announced Wednesday it will launch a joint mission with Russia to Mars in 2009, marking "an important milestone" in space cooperation between the two countries.

A small Chinese satellite will take off on a Russian rocket, according to the agreement signed Monday between the China National Space Administration and the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Chinese space body said.

"No one has more experience in space exploration than the Russians, and there's no question that their technology is far ahead of China's," said Tong Huiquan, an astronomer at the Nanchang Institute of Technology in eastern China.

"But China's economy is doing better than Russia's, and China can provide Russia with some economic assistance, so it's fair to say it's a win-win situation," he said.

Even so, many observers have seen China's revived interest in space as a reflection of its great power aspirations, and a source of national pride.

I hate to say it, but I've a feeling that last is the aspect that will get others most interested... it may well take another war-driven space-race to get us moving on this again.....

 

[j d worthington]

Some interesting concerns being issued here:

Some fear Russia to become space cabbie - Yahoo! News

Vinogradov warned that without a next-generation spacecraft, Russia could fall hopelessly behind the United States, the European Union, China and others.

"The Americans will build their new spacecraft ... and we will be left behind with our old ship which no one will need," he said in a recently published interview.

"The Americans, the Europeans, the Japanese all are developing space technologies of the future, while Russia is just marking time," Marinin said.

However, there are a lot of other concerns outside the geopolitical at this point -- for which see the article. Title: "Some fear Russia to become space cabbie", from AP, by Vladimir Isachenkov, datelined Sun., Apr. 8, 2007.

I can't help but wonder, though, about the geopolitical aspects of this creating new tensions....

 

[Pyan]

I wish that there was a way to just go and bang all their heads together and say
"Just grow up and get on with it!"

 

[j d worthington]

I wish that there was a way to just go and bang all their heads together and say
"Just grow up and get on with it!"

Hmmm. Just quoted a line from 1776 to Hooph, now another comes to mind:

John to Abigail (about Congress): Oh, Abigail, I have such a desire to knock heads together!...

 

[Triceratops]

I agree with Ray. Let's go. Even though I don't think I'll be around to see it.

Tri