News NASA cannot to Mars
- Thread starter kamaz
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Yes and so was another of NASA's administrators, Richard Truly.
richfororbit
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What he may be getting at is former Astronauts older than him...
More than just spit and polish!
More than just spit and polish!
Urwumpe
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Yeah. Not that I think that being an astronaut makes you a better NASA administrator. Mike Griffin was an engineer and really did everything engineering teaches you should NOT do in project management.
I think the best NASA administrator would be some boring pale bureaucrat. Somebody who does not mess into science or engineering, does not develop such psychological disorders like visions. Somebody who keeps the budget together, tries to keep his workforce together and his strategic suppliers healthy. Also somebody who does not feel any involvement in the projects and does not feel bad if he has to cancel one or has a pet project to bloat.
Andy44
owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Putting astronauts in charge of NASA doesn't change the fact that it is a government agency and cannot simply do whatever it wants or take risks without accountability to Congress and the public who pays for it.
Yes. There has been only two really good NASA administrators, James Webb and Sean O'Keefe. Webb was an sly Washington bureaucrat before being confirmed as NASA's second administrator so he knew the ins and outs of Washington politics. And Sean O'Keefe was a well experienced business man and former SecNav and DoD comptroller/CFO during the Bush Sr administration. So both were well experienced with high-level politics before becoming NASA administrators.
MaverickSawyer
Acolyte of the Probe
Understood. I'm simply saying that they should be more... tolerant of risk. I mean, you're riding atop a barely controlled explosion for eight minutes and change. Stuff will go wrong from time to time. You just have to be willing to accept that.
richfororbit
Active member
Only competition between states to go to Mars would help drive funding for the agency. Otherwise if governments don't support any program voluntary just as a national longterm goal, then it won't happen as history has shown.
I think like a former Astronaut who went to the moon, I don't recall the name now, a return to the moon would take place in the twenty second century, so Mars within that timeframe.
I think like a former Astronaut who went to the moon, I don't recall the name now, a return to the moon would take place in the twenty second century, so Mars within that timeframe.
Kyle
Armchair Astronaut
Gotta love ASAP. They're the cold water on NASA's fantastic dreams.
Urwumpe
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That is very easy. If you do it yourself for fun, you can be tolerant of any risk. I am beyond 30 and still I could entertain my neighbors practicing longboarding.
If you are planning to send your employees on that ride, its different. You are responsible for their health. You can't just decide that they should take risks for you, so you can save some money in your NASA budget.
I am not sure if you have noticed it already: Spaceflight is even in its safest version already very dangerous. You don't need to make it more risky than it already is.
I said it once I will say it again...
China will land on Mars way way before Nasa can afford to send a man to the moon again
richfororbit
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Only the conflict driver is what did it the first time. As one former Astronaut stated, I don't recall the name now, it is a couple of centuries away.
N_Molson
Addon Developer
Its a fact that the worldwide economical perspectives are a bit scary at least for the decade to come. This isn't exactly the kind of background you can dream about to fund an ambitious space program such as a manned landing on Mars... :shrug:
richfororbit
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So a Mars initiative by the end of the century is the latest opportunity, just after 2072.
TMac3000
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When asked "What's the hardest thing about going to the moon?" Wernher Von Braun replied "The will to do it."
We can land a man on Mars. We can do it in the next 50 years, if not in the next decade. We just don't have the will. The Apollo days are over, and it will take some visionary who is not yet born to bring them back.
We can land a man on Mars. We can do it in the next 50 years, if not in the next decade. We just don't have the will. The Apollo days are over, and it will take some visionary who is not yet born to bring them back.
richfororbit
Active member
No it won't take a visionary, only a change in political landscape. It has been tried more than once, but the fact that it isn't pressing to most of us in walking life other than our immediate needs.
Otherwise as we all know, space probes are the future. I think by the end of this century if Humankind is still around, a lot can happen in that time, or going into the next century a return to the Moon and a mission to Mars can or will take place after a first return to the Moon.
Even if just the Mars mission definately, end of the century going into the next.
Compared to the Moon, where there is no safe location with exception of Malapert, shackleton crater for an outpost with difficulty, the galactic cosmic rays hitting the surface mean that modules with personnel can only remain on the surface anywhere for a year if practical.
Mars's surface would need a shelter for the modules as Mr Aldrin has illustrated for a long stay.
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