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AlderaanDuran  ·  4191 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If You Had To Fund A NASA Progect What would it be?

    I think a manned mission to #mars would be my pick.

My vote as well. I want to see this before I die. I missed the moon landings. Right now, we are still figuring out exactly how to get people to Mars and back. Many thing we could "do it tomorrow" and money is the only issue, but it's not. People forget how complicated it was just to land Curiosity there not too long ago. It was a multi-stage landing process that had atmo breaking, parachutes deployed at the fastest speeds ever, then a flying robotic jetpack hover, which then dropped the rover with a crane onto the surface... now imagine getting just one person and the oxygen, tools, and supplies he needs on the surface. It's a very complicated process. Plus, we'd have to stay there for roughly a year on the surface due to how the planets line up for the travel to Mars, waiting for the proper alignment for a return journey (which is entirely different than traveling there), and then the return trip. It's like 38 months I believe total round trip time.... that's A LOT of supplies.

I think we'll still make it happen though, hopefully sooner than later. Would love to see humans walk on another planet. More so, would love to see humans walk on a planet outside of our solar system, but I'm guessing that's something not even my kids will see... but who knows. Things are changing so rapidly.