OT Spirit Rolls

"Jim Ray" wrote in message
...
Yeah, like Proxmire said: A billion here, a billion there, pretty
soon
you're talking real money. (paraphrased).

Dirksen......for what it's worth.

Wolfgang

Willi wrote in news:4006a29b$0$70304$75868355
@news.frii.net:

Some good news

Spirit starts its journey on Mars and Bush proposes an expanded space
program.

Willi






I think of it as an entitlement program for engineers!! :-)

Scott

The real journey is to push O'NEill to at least the second page.

Willi wrote in message ...
Some good news

Spirit starts its journey on Mars and Bush proposes an expanded space
program.

Willi

Its questionable if there's any benefit in sending a human in the first
place. You can build probes for a
fraction of the cost simply because you dont have to worry about the extra
gear needed to keep someone alive. And except for the 'we put a man on mars'
we are unlikely to learn anything that probes wouldnt uncover.

Willi wrote:
Some good news

Spirit starts its journey on Mars and Bush proposes an expanded space
program.

I agree that a *modestly* expanded space program is a good thing, but
the goal of sending people to Mars is nuts. If the Spirit's success (so
far) demonstrates anything, it's that robotic exploration is the way to
go. We could send more than 1000 Spirit-like missions to Mars for even
the most low-ball estimate of a single manned mission, and we could
start immediately, and the robotic technology would rapidly improve.

What is the point of a human being planting a flag on Mars? Isn't the
goal to learn more about Mars? My impression is that most highly
regarded planetary scientists strongly favor robot missions over manned
ones. The International Space Station, for example, looks more and more
like an expensive and useless gesture.

Now, if we were still running record surpluses, I might reconsider my
opinion. :-)

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"Wolfgang" wrote

Dirksen......for what it's worth.
ah, by god, everett dirksen: the last classy republican.

yfitons
wayno (well, there was that milquetoast from connecticut...)

Do you think he'd be a Republican today?
"Wayne Harrison" wrote in message
om...

"Wolfgang" wrote

Dirksen......for what it's worth.
ah, by god, everett dirksen: the last classy republican.

yfitons
wayno (well, there was that milquetoast from connecticut...)

"rw" wrote in message

What is the point of a human being planting a flag on Mars?

someone has been watching "Total Recall"

jh

"B J Conner" wrote in message
...
Do you think he'd be a Republican today?

If he was, he'd be a good one.

Phil Sheridan
USA(Ret.)