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| Science & Technology |
| NASA chief: U.S. won't go it alone on manned Mars mission |
| 2012-08-02 |
| U.S. astronauts won't land on Mars by themselves but with international partners in the 2030s, NASA's chief said Wednesday. "Yeah, we probably don't have enough people in this country to make up a qualified crew." The NASA Curiosity rover's risky landing on the Red Planet is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. ET Monday morning. NASA chief Charles Bolden focused on Mars as the "ultimate destination for now" for human space exploration, in a meeting with the USA TODAY Editorial Board. "I have no desire to do a Mars landing on our own," Bolden said. "The U.S. cannot always be the leader, but we can be the inspirational leader through international cooperation" in space exploration. "I'm not too sure why we can't always be the leader, but I'm pretty sure we can't." Obama administration plans are for the $17.7 billion space agency to land an astronaut on an asteroid in 2025, then go to Mars by the middle of the 2030s. "But it could take longer. Budget cuts and such, y'know. Maybe we can hitch along when the Chinese go. Or maybe the Indians. That'd save some money for social programs." The mission inevitably will be international, as will any future human landings on the moon, Bolden said. "We already have gone there first," he said. "We've been there already, even though we couldn't do it again. How many Neil Armstrongs do we have, after all?" The Obama administration's space plans have attracted criticism this year from some space-state senators such as Richard Shelby, R.-Ala., who disagreed with its emphasis on private space rockets to resupply the International Space Station, rather than a heavy rocket that would send a spacecraft to circle the moon in 2017. A human mission to Mars would send six astronauts, ... an international crew with equal numbers of each gender, color, and probably shoe size... who would take six months to get there and stay a month before returning on an eight- month trip back to Earth. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 How about we outsource the entire project? China builds the rocket and sends Chinese astronauts. Obama takes the credit. Sound about right? |
| Posted by: Iblis 2012-08-02 13:41 |
| #1 Of course we won't go on that fantasy mission alone. My Little Pony and Skeletor will be along for the ride... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2012-08-02 10:45 |