Obama plans Mars trip in two decades

This is possibly the most vital time in humanity's entire history. If our species wants to have any hope of surviving for the long haul, we have to get off earth. That is not up for debate, it is a fact. We have already surpassed earth's population cap, and if we don't do something soon, we're going to run out of food and resources very quickly. In the coming years, newer technology is very likely going to slow down our stubborn death when the cloning of food becomes more acceptable and widespread, but that can't last us forever. We need space. We're almost at 7 billion people now, and as population increases, the rate of birth obviously does as well, because there's more people fucking. At the moment, the colonization of Mars is our best hope.

Here's the story. The problem with getting to Mars is fuel. It takes a fuckton of fuel to fly up into space from Earth. After that's used up, there simply would not be enough fuel to get to Mars and back with the current spacecraft we're using. NASA found a solution to this. It's called the Constellation Program. They planned to have a permanent lunar outpost set up on the moon by 2024. This outpost, not Earth, would be the launchpad to Mars. The Moon's gravity isn't nearly as strong as Earth's, so much less fuel would be used. Voila!



And this launchpad wouldn't go away. Settlers from earth would slowly migrate, and it would grow. People would live there.



Last month, Obama canceled this plan, citing cost concerns. It's not without reason, because it would really cost a-fucking-lot. But the people at NASA (and me) were fucking devastated. An open letter decrying the decision was sent to the White House, signed by 27 astronauts, including Armstrong and Lovell. This should be pretty significant, because Armstrong, who's usually a really shy person and very rarely gives interviews, has been going around speaking out about it.

President Obama spoke at the Kennedy Space Center today about NASA's future. Here's the entire thing if you have half an hour to spare.



Here's a transcript.

"And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon into deep space. So we’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.

[...]

I understand that some believe we should attempt to return to the surface of the moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say pretty bluntly here, we've been there before. Buzz has been there. There's a lot more of space to explore, and a lot more to learn when we do."

Buzz Aldrin supports the new plan. There's a lot of outrage about it, and I have to admit, I was pretty pissed off at first too, but I'm cautiously optimistic now. As cool as the moon is, Obama really does have a point, there's not much there for us if the goal is ultimately Mars. But you also have to keep in mind that there are other countries that already have plans in the works to go back to the moon, and Obama's decision is basically giving it to them. I'm talking about that moon colony. China's gonna be scdattling around on the moon searching for helium-3 deposits, while America's gonna be scrambling to find a decent plan to get to Mars. This is all-or-nothing, if we can't come up with a fuel-efficient way to get off Earth, then America's prospects in space are finished.

The good thing is that we have a fuel-efficient way to get off earth. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume Obama has the Mars Direct plan in mind. This was dreamt up in the 90s by David Baker and Robert Zubrin, and it's pretty brilliant. It won't send just one craft, it will send one after the other, in two year intervals. Each crew will spend a year and a half there. The purpose of each landing would basically be to help prepare the landing site for the next crew, so that the colony will slowly grow and grow over the decades. Here's an awesome video that sums it up pretty well.



And good ol' Fox News is opposing it with flatout lies, which probably means it's a good idea. They said Buzz Aldrin is "blasting Obama" when he actually supports the plan. They said Obama is "slashing" NASA's budget, when he's actually increasing it by $6 billion dollars. And blonde-with-tits asked "Are we even going to have a NASA program anymore?" We'll probably need a space program if we're sending people to Mars, so my guess is yes.



Envisage - Contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event.