I have a plea for all of you..

[NASAFanboy]

Not sure if this is against the rules, but I need you to sign this petition..who knows? Maybe we'll actually do something. Wouldn't it be grand if Obama changed his policy and a community of space gamers made a dent in the real world?

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/push-manned-mars-mission-late-2020/5qFysgYW

[Lohan2008]

NO! There is still too many social, economic, health and environmental problems to solve first.

[astropapi1]

Sorry to be such a pessimist, but... it's not gonna happen. At least with the way the government sees space exploration these days.

HOWEVER, If I was the head of whatever space agency you choose, and I got a green light for a manned mars mission, I'd immediately call This guy and some people from this place to start working on this program. It's our best hope for a manned mars mission before the 30s.

[Ravenchant]

Not with that description, sorry. You need to elaborate and sound a bit more professional to be taken seriously. When inspiring kids is among the top reasons...yeah. Maybe after the economic crisis stabilizes?

[Sirrobert]

Kinda need some more reasons than 'to inspire kids' for something that expencive and life changing

[ZedNova]

There's no reason to go to mars with people yet, we have to solve problems down on earth first.

[NASAFanboy]

There is no reason to solve these probelms either.

If everyone had that mentality, we would still be picking lice out of our hair somewhere in a cave in Africa. There are always going to be probelms on Earth, and we need to ignore some of them

When even 3rd world villagers want us to return to the moon and go to Mars more than the "1st World" citizens, that's a rather low point in human ignorance.

I'm going to edit petition, will post new link...need more reasons.

[Sirrobert]

Dude, we are in a global economy crisis. Where the hell are we going to get the money for such a thing right now?

[Deadpangod3]

Dude, we are in a global economy crisis. Where the hell are we going to get the money for such a thing right now?

From the military's budget, they have enough nukes the way it is!

[NASAFanboy]

Dude, we are in a global economy crisis. Where the hell are we going to get the money for such a thing right now?

You're saying this while the militaries of the World are overfunded and as banks are recieving so much money its not even funny.

[Holo]

NO! There is still too many social, economic, health and environmental problems to solve first.

--Christopher Columbus, 1491.

[Sirrobert]

From the military's budget, they have enough nukes the way it is!

Yea, like that's ganna happen. America likes their guns a little to much

[Deadpangod3]

Yea, like that's ganna happen. America likes their guns a little to much

Agreed :/

(Tenchar)

[ZedNova]

Yea, like that's ganna happen. America likes their guns a little to much

Can we please not turn this into a discussion about Firearms and the laws pertaining to them... Thank you.

[fatfluffycat]

You know this will never work

Plus there are more important problems now......

[lajoswinkler]

I totally agree with "we'd still be picking lice out of hair" argument, but that works if you have medium low priority problems. The world is in a crisis at the moment and it's serious.

True, the US military budget could be redistributed and it's a national shame worth mocking, but it's simply something impossible to dismantle by a petition. We're talking about more than half century of corruption passed on from a generation to generation of people brainwashed into military mentality. It's a conglomerate of industry and the military. I honestly don't see anything that could stop it except a global threat in the form of another dinosaur killer on a collision trajectory. We do have a global threat called global warming, but it's too slow for stupid politicians to acknowledge with proper measures.

Your effort is noble, but you're helpless. This complex world is run by psychopaths, liars and murderers, and money is there to hide the blood and offer cheap entertainment so it's easy to forget about the blood drops coming from the ceiling. They have no morality except when they need to save their own asses. These people would throw a buss full of kids into a volcano just to save an investment. They don't care about an online petition.

[Psycix]

NO! There is still too many social, economic, health and environmental problems to solve first.

There's no reason to go to mars with people yet, we have to solve problems down on earth first.

I think those statements are downright nonsense.

I'm presenting some points as an answer to what has been stated and other thoughts that come to mind:

1 - Economic

Spaceflight costs money. Where does this money go? People.

Everything we do in space has created hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

If we didn't pay those people to build rockets, we would still pay their unemployment benefits.

2 - Health

Studying on how the human body and other organisms behave in microgravity or other exotic environments is valuable information that contributes to the development of new medical technology.

3 - Environmental

Spaceflight encourages the development of new technologies. These developments will help us create clean energy and transportation.

4 - Social

Spaceflight unites people and countries.

For example, the international space station is a combined effort of two large countries who almost nuked eachother a few decades ago.

Secondly, watching a few of our own people walk across the moon is something that reminds people we are on this world together, and that our combined efforts can lead to the most beautiful things.

5 - Education

Space exploration inspires our children to get interested in science. This directly leads to a smarter future generation.

6 - Look at the numbers

People complain spaceflight is expensive. About 0,5% of the US tax dollar is spent on NASA, that's 17.8 billion dollar.

At the same time they spend 672.9 billion on their defense department.

The money is there. It is just very poorly distributed.

Source

7 - SpaceX is changing the face of the industry

The Falcon 9 rocket is already providing launch services for an extremely low price. When these rockets become reusable (which will likely happen within a year), this price will be slashed by a significant factor.

Bringing stuff into orbit can easily become an order of magnitude cheaper than it used to be. A Mars colony WILL be affordable.

8 - Solving the problems on earth is infeasible.

The problems we are having can only be changed if we change our way of life as a collective. This is very unlikely to happen, and making it happen would cost a lot of money.

The 0,5% government spending that is being attributed to spaceflight is not going to help fix these problems.

The most likely way to fix our problems, is to bring an innovative concept on the market that is commercially attractive AND a step in the right direction.

An example of this could be Tesla: They're building electric vehicles that have exceeded everyone's expectations, and their existence alone has sparked a rapid acceleration in the development of EV's at other car manufacturers.

So:

Why spend money up there when we've got problems down here?

Because the money is better spent and achieves a lot more in the long run.

[koshelenkovv]

Dude, we are in a global economy crisis. Where the hell are we going to get the money for such a thing right now?

Excerpt from U.S. Federal budget on 2014 FY (in billions of dollars) from here:

• Health Care 1,038.6
  
• Pensions 925.7
  
• Defense 799.8
  
• Welfare 402.6
  
• Interest 309.1
  
• Transportation 107.7
  
• Space flight, research, and supporting activities 17.6
  
• 
  

Here is nice interactive chart for 2011 FY.

Screenshot:

Edited December 13, 2013 by koshelenkovv

[ZedNova]

I agree spaceflight should receive much more funding, but a manned mission to mars before anything else? As much fun as it is to go to new places and watch us land on new planetary bodies, what would a mars landing accomplish? What would the goals be? The amount of planning that has to go behind this is massive. How will they eat for the duration of their stay? How will they stay healthy on their way there? What do we do if something goes wrong? How will they get back? What if someone vital to the mission is killed? We need to build a lunar base first IMHO. Then a Mars landing, or even a colony would be much more feasible.

Edited December 13, 2013 by ZedNova

[Psycix]

The answers to those questions are the very reason we should do it. Unsolved challenges spark research and development of new things.