Cost Pennies for Manned Mars

[planetling]

Of course everybody has a pet project that they would like to see completed. Everything costs money, but in the grand scheme science usually has a way to pay for itsself as consumer goods that have resulted from such science become available (teflon, microwave ovens, velcro, etc).

The newest Large Haldon Collider cost in the neighborhood of $ 9 billion US. This is roughly 1 quart of beer for only half the population of the US. This would put a figure on a manned mission to Mars at about 2 quarts of beer for the entire population of the US. If an international effort were made, depending on the number of countries involved, that number could approach only mere pennies per tax paying person.

The technology is there, especially if we were to concentrate our efforts in the same way that we did with the first manned mission to the Moon.

Why is a manned mission to Mars not taken more seriously? I can understand the political reasons, but govt. combined with private sector, along with other counties participation, wouldn't there be enough support and money to see this through within the next decade?

Thinking of all the people that would be employed by such effort also makes sense, as this would help to stimulate not only the US economy, but Europe and other nations facing the same economic hardships (?).

 

[jimglenn]

Teflon was invented during the Manhatten project to coat pipes in the enrichment plants, uranium hex gas would eat thru anything, including glass.

Microwave ovens came out of WW2 radar, the UK Magnetron.

Velcro:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Who-Invented- ... id=1942162

A Mars mission will cost trillions. We need to solve our earthbound problems first: wars, health, energy, jobs.

Then go on a boondoggle. Probably bring back some Andromedia strain that kills us all anyway.. :shock:

 

[planetling]

jimglenn, yes I am aware of where/how those were invented (not due to space exploration). But inventions eventually work their way into consumer goods

Trillions? Maybe, but notable people such as Robert Zubrin elude to far cheaper costs. Whether that is realistic or not there have been no "solid" proposals to at least factor what the cost would be. I am sure that if whatever govts. wanted to engage in such a project, along with private sector "bidding" on various outsourcing tasks, the final contribution per person would be relatively small while also providing job growth. Eventually, whatever new gadgets produced for such mission would filter down to consumer goods, over time would become cheap to mass produce and make way for even newer products/inventions. History has proven this.

Waiting to resolve Earthly problems before traveling to the stars will never happen. Thank goodness caveman didn't feel that way before inventing the wheel!

Is there any way to force the world population to be optimistic as opposed to pessimistic?

 

[JeffreyNYA]

A Mars mission will cost trillions. We need to solve our earthbound problems first: wars, health, energy, jobs.

So what you're saying is that we will never ever go to Mars?

 

[ZiraldoAerospace]

A Mars mission will cost trillions. We need to solve our earthbound problems first: wars, health, energy, jobs.

So what you're saying is that we will never ever go to Mars?

Well we could just wait until trillions of dollars isn't that much because of inflation... :lol:

 

[cosmictraveler]

In time, perhaps 30 years or so, things will become faster, safer and cheaper. Sending robots and making robots so that can think for themselves, AI like, is the best and cheapest way to get data back from far away.

 

[CalliArcale]

Teflon was invented during the Manhatten project to coat pipes in the enrichment plants, uranium hex gas would eat thru anything, including glass.

Microwave ovens came out of WW2 radar, the UK Magnetron.

Velcro:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Who-Invented- ... id=1942162

A Mars mission will cost trillions. We need to solve our earthbound problems first: wars, health, energy, jobs.

Then go on a boondoggle. Probably bring back some Andromedia strain that kills us all anyway.. :shock:

It is true that most of the things people *think* came out of the space program (like Tang) actually didn't.

But that doesn't mean nothing came out of it. Actually, a lot of things did. Tempur Pedic beds aren't exactly world-saving devices, but they aren't lying when they say the technology came from the space program -- it was invented for better couches and helmets to protect astronauts. (Main irony there: it isn't getting used for that purpose.) On an actual lifesaving note, the Jarvik ventricular assist device (an artificial pump implanted in a person's body to augment a failing heart) uses technology developed for the production of better and more reliable liquid rocket engine turbopumps -- and you don't really get any spacier than rocket science. That one's been so successful it has allowed some people to actually avoid a heart transplant. (So far. There's always the unknown on the bleeding edge of medical technology.) The ISS is now being used for the sorts of medical research you won't read about in the newspaper but which will nevertheless revolutionize cancer treatment by providing vastly better ways to study cancer itself -- growth of tumor cells in space. Tumor cells on a petri dish are limited, because real tumors aren't flat. They're lumpy. Grow them in space, over a period of several months, and you get a much more realistic model upon which to perform your research. And then of course there are the really big revolutions that space science have brought us, via unmanned spacecraft: telecommunications, weather forecasting, satellite mapping, etc.

But what would a manned mission to Mars give us that we can't get with an unmanned program and a space station?

Just one thing.

Hope.

Don't discount hope. If mankind is to survive where the dinosaurs did not, mankind needs to spread beyond its cradle. To do that, we need to start sending people to other worlds. We can do that now, or we can do that in a thousand years (probably), but honestly, there's no time like the present. Sometimes I wonder if our purpose in life, if we have one, isn't exactly what is written in the book of Genesis:

Go forth into the world. Be fruitful, and multiply.

We're filling this world up. It is time to move beyond Eden, to go forth, to be fruitful, to multiply, and to bring life to the rest of the Universe. Perhaps we'll even find more out there already, but if not, then the responsibility rests with us to get it there.