Quote:
Originally Posted by Wandrin
One of the problems of politics interfering with space exploration is the focus on manned missions to other planets. Yes, I know that this is what the people want and that it is something that the politicians push. It is glamorous, but it wastes time and money.
A manned mission is far more complicated, costs 100 times more (at least), takes longer to plan, and really doesn't provide any more information than sending adaptively intelligent machines to do the same job. But it makes for better TV.
We don't even know how to keep food tasty for a manned mission to Mars, yet we are diverting a huge portion of NASA's budget to that project, and away from more productive (in terms of information gathered) missions.
Since the same luddites in congress that cannot be convinced of global climate change (because it isn't in their Bible) are the ones holding the purse strings, there isn't much that can be done about the problem.
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This point is indeed the reality. Along with how to prevent muscle atrophy and accelerated osteoporosis from the VERY long trips in zero g. However, there is going to be a generation that must look at terraforming elsewhere. Its not an impending problem now, but its the kind of issue that will take hundreds of years to investigate. Earth populus will always create its own dungeons so when will there ever be a right time?