Is a mission to Mars morally defensible?

Re:Is a mission to Mars morally defensible? by fibo on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @02:45PM (#13544266)

A mission to Mars is science fiction at least until 2050 or more. We don't have the technology, we could land a 1 ton spaceship with a robot, but a space ship with enough food, water and air to let people travel for 6 months would be too heavy for current technology and crash on landing.

What is not moral is the fact that it is becoming a sort of big brother show based on no scientific assumptions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is a mission to Mars morally defensible? by doikor on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @02:56PM (#13544405)

I think we do have the technology. Just not the budget it would take to do in near future with the technology available. To make it economically feasible is going to take some time.

If US put the same kind of money into NASA they did during the Apollo days (so 4% of federal budged instead of 0.5% for a decade or two without changing the plan/goal of NASA with every administration change) a lot of stuff would be possible.

If you had an "infinite" budged you could just build a VERY big space craft in orbit and use that. But the money isn't there so it isn't happening until SpaceX or whoever lowers the launch prices further (SpaceX Falcon Heavy and/or ITS/MCT for example)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is a mission to Mars morally defensible? by gozur88 on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @04:18PM (#13545313)

We could do it by 2025 if we really wanted to. It would take multiple launches and a separate lander, but we could do it if we were willing to spend the money.

[ Parent | on HN ]