Mars Poll

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frankmars

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We're all familiar with the various space missions that have carried people's names out there -- Phoenix, Dawn, others.<br /><br />Here's a question for you -- suppose you had the chance to send information to Mars -- MORE than just your name -- but for a price.<br /><br />For example: Your family photos, your signature, poems, short stories, journal entries, messages to future Martians...<br /><br />Would you pay for that service? How much per US-standard page (8.5x11 inches or roughly 21x28 cm) would be a fair price?<br /><br />Do you think others would like this idea? Would it be popular or unpopular? Might it reach outside the "space community" with proper marketing? How would you sell it? <br /><br />Or- what would you pay for a similar service but one in which the spacecraft stays only in Mars orbit taking photos/exploration etc and could communicate with people back on Earth continually? Which idea sounds more interesting or worthwhile? Or do you have your own?<br />
 
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frankmars

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Next question but more obvious- What if this was all free? (large corporate sponsors would pay for advertising space to fund it), so you could upload your information for free?
 
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gunsandrockets

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Sounds like the 'fly your stuff' project of Bigelow Aerospace.<br /><br />A lot depends on the price.
 
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a_lost_packet_

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Uh...<br /><br />Send junk to Mars?<br /><br />Just decontaminating the stuff would cost a fortune! You can't send it otherwise.<br /><br />Besides, we've already sent enough "junk" to Mars in the form of scrap metal. Well, things that weren't meant to be scrap metal but ended up that way after stopping very, very suddenly...<br /><br />I wouldn't want to send anything to Mars except myself. If you can arrange that to be free, I'll go ahead and start packing today. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>
 
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thereiwas

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There you go - sell the opportunity to have your name engraved on the inside of a Mars lander backshell - a piece of "junk" that is already going. Anybody remember what was inside the case of the original Macintosh computers?
 
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a_lost_packet_

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I already had my name on a disk that rode the "Deep Impact" mission. That was neat. I think some more marketing or outreach programs like that would give a needed boost to public interest. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>
 
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3488

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Hi a_lost_packet_,<br /><br />I did also, no 40983. Also on the MERs, DAWN, Mars Pheonix Lander & New Horizons.<br /><br />Whether I would pay to put more on, I do not know. A lander to lets say onre of the Galilean moons<br />of Jupiter, maybe, as I have a certain <br />fondness for the Jupiter system & have done much <br />personal research on them.<br /><br />I would not however endorse a lander, to just send names & personal messages <br />just for commercial reasons & not for science. That is littering for the sake of making money.<br /><br />The parachutes, backshells, heat sheilds of the Mars Landers are not really junk,<br />in that they assisted in landing scientific hardware on Mars & when humans eventually go<br />i can see the parachutes, backshells, heat sheilds, being collected up & they themselves<br />can help us understand how certain materials behave in martian conditions over time.<br /><br />Thats my opinion.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
 
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a_lost_packet_

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Fair enough.<br /><br />If this would be an accompanying part of an existing mission, I have no problem with it as long as all the necessary safeguards are followed. That would include decon procedures that would, possibly, be cost-prohibitive.<br /><br />But, a name or phrase accompanying the mission is always fairly easy to do and doesn't take much weight.<br /><br />My reference to "junk" was a lighthearted quip regarding the amount of failed missions to Mars where various craft have ended up making a spectacular atmospheric entry usually followed by a very, very sudden stop. Apparently, we're already guilty of interplanetary littering. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>
 
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frankmars

Guest
Thanks for the feedback so far. Well there are various ideas on how to do this, some of them include not landing anything but merely keeping in orbit around Mars and using the spacecraft to explore the planet and communicate with the public back on earth- for example- imagine being able to take your own pictures of Mars- where you want. That's one idea. Or being able to communicate with a Mars probe you have an interest in? I'll be surprised if anyone opposes this.<br /><br />Also, let's not discount the "fun" aspect. In one of our polls elsewhere on this we got this very funny reply (in response to the "let's stick to the science/let's not pollute" opinions)-<br /><br />I'll sway with the winds of opinion so far in this forum, and also declare this idea bad. But I think we have to get down to the fundamentals. WHY is it bad? I gave this some serious thought, a whole twenty minutes. And it suddenly came to me.<br /><br />Sending a bunch of silly notes to Mars is a bad idea because it might be fun. When other people aren't having fun.<br /><br />Until we can ALL have fun, NONE of us should have fun. And when you consider that someone, somewhere, will always not be having fun -- they have a baby squalling at them, or be dying of cancer in a hospital bed, or be stuck in smoggy freeway traffic with a dead CD player -- it becomes obvious: it's virtually impossible for everyone to be having fun. So nobody should. We shouldn't even try. Only by universalizing<br />misery, can everyone be truly equal.<br /><br />And did I say "universalizing"? Yes! And that's a hell of a good reason for space development, when you really think about it. Because after all, if we succeed in snuffing out all joy on our own planet, there will still be advanced civilizations elsewhere in the universe<br />where lots of sentient beings are still having fun (or perhaps"x'rs#fv!" as they might say in their language). They might even be having something akin to sex. *Good* sex.<br /><br />God, it ma
 
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webtaz99

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If it makes you feel good, do it.<br /><br />Let the market decide. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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