Samantha Atkins writes:
> > Actually, the Mars Direct project could be accomplished by private
> > industry maybe not with Bill Gates wealth, but the wealth
> > equivalent of Microsoft. We could certainly do it with a
> > mere 20% of the national surplus of the coming decade,
> > and leave a permanent presence.
>
> I agree. But this is a far cry from what was proposed by denis, which
> was to have Mars be a backup in case something happened to earth. The
> Mars direct approach would take decades to build up that kind of
> presence and civilization on Mars.
Actually, I don't think I ever implied that we need to set up a backup on
Mars by, dunno, my birthday next year. You say that "the Mars direct
approach would take decades to build up that kind of presence and
civilization on Mars". "Decades" sounds great to me. What I don't like is
"centuries".
Given enough time, sooner or later we will do it. What I was suggesting is
that we do something to make it happen sooner: increase funding, or change
regulations in a smart way, or anything. Just so it happens sooner than it's
going to at the current pace of things, because we probably don't have a lot
of time to spare.
Regards,
denis
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:27 MDT