Will humans make it to Mars in our lifetime?

I personally don\'t think so. They still have troubles trying to land robots on Mars let alone an entire spacecraft full of people. I do think it would be fascinating tho to live in a time where humans actually take their first steps on another planet.

Bush has said he wants Nasa to go back to the moon by 2020 and use it as a launching pad to worlds outside our orbit and I don\'t even think there is a spaceship capable of taking humans that far yet. I\'ve also heard talks about making Mars inhabitable for humans by melting the martian icecaps and giving the planet water and life. I believe we actually do have the technology to do that at the moment but the costs would be astronomical.

One thing I do hope to do before I die however is I hope they perfect technology like what the Virgin company is trying to do and take a ride to space, even if just outside earths orbit I could die happy.

[clips]

Maybe they\'ll be able to take a flight in orbit to the the planet and maybe even land humans on the surface as some type of vacation or in the same since that a cruise ship stops off at certain islands for a few hours,..but that is about it....i don\'t think humans will ever be able to live on it. From the photos i\'ve seen, it\'s nothing but dry flatlands,...

And if humans did setup some type of artificial atmospheric bubble, with humans living inside of it, i think it would cost too much to maintain oxygen,food and other supplies needed for nourishment...it\'d be nice, but i don\'t think it\'s feasible.

The article I read (which I unfourtunately cannot find at the moment) explained that if you melted the icecaps you can then plant trees and what not and create oxygen for the planet. In our rather small solar system Mars really seems to be the only option for a \'chance\' at human colonization on another planet.

As for the other planets, I do think it would be awesome if we could ever take a photo image and see what one of the gas giants looks like from the inside.

[Jumpman]

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[GmanJoe]

If Mars was populated now, we\'d be superbeings with their relatively low gravity. They\'ve got a mountain 2 times taller than Everest. No way a mountain that big could exist on Earth. The force of gravity would make the base of the mountain molten.

I found that out at the Planetarium in Baltimore last weekend.

...

I was bored and felt like thinking out loud in a post

and Gman planetariums are awesome

[Viper_Fujax]

I definitly think we will. By like 2012 we\'ll have even more sophisticated equipment/robots there (probably later since they always get delays), and killing two birds with one stone will look at what the best location would be when we land there.

Optimistically, i think ill be in my 40\'s by the time we do..which is like 20ish years. There\'s no other planet we can land on..and we have the ability, just not the funds right now. i guess it all depends what state the world is in to see if we\'ll fund nasa enough to do such a huge mission.

[Titan]

I sometimes don\'t think we will ever get to another planet because of politics and money. I feel that there is always going to be something that will hold it back, no matter if its a war or an economic recession. It would be cool though to go to another planet.

[Viper_Fujax]

I sometimes don\'t think we will ever get to another planet because of politics and money. I feel that there is always going to be something that will hold it back, no matter if its a war or an economic recession. It would be cool though to go to another planet.

that\'s only because right now we\'re going through both of those things that that\'s on your mind..while theres obviously a probability that either/both of those will reoccur (the economy goes up and down and every decade has a war/"conflict"), the likelyhood that thing will always be as the are right now isn\'t likely.

id just never say with a lot of gumption that just because we\'re at a shitty economic time now that it will always be so bad that we wont put people on mars. We\'re putting crazy high-tech equipment into space even with wars and recession...the only reason we don\'t put people with that crazy high-tech equipment is because it doesn\'t matter as much if the equipment malfunctions and slams into mars\'s ground right now. landing\'s definitly going to be super complex with people involved

Does Mars have oil? And will building a launching pad on the moon and fueling a rocket to other worlds use any of ours?
 
Because Mars can suck a nut for $4 a gallon.

[Viper_Fujax]

the faster we burn off the oil the faster we get cars that run on air...

lez burn that fuel

The technology is the least problem...

Our human bodies & mental capacity are going to be the bottleneck ; because i\'m sure extended time outside of earth will be desastrous to human sanity.

Unless we mutate, i don\'t think we\'ll last there.. and no, technology is not gonna do the trick.

[Jumpman]

I was bored and felt like thinking out loud in a post

I forgive you. The topic has potential for meaningful discussion.

I just wanted an excuse to post that picture.

[Titan]

I forgive you. The topic has potential for meaningful discussion.

I just wanted an excuse to post that picture.

That\'s what she said

[Viper_Fujax]

shows how they landed the rovers on mars

even the small stuff like the parachute had huge problems let alone all that other crap (when they were testing it)