Re: Is USA going to be embarrased by China getting to Mars first

schumache1234@xxxxxxxxx wrote in
news:1144564372.493336.148410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

I think we have another space race on our hands. America says it is
going to the Moon and then on to Mars (I bet the money never comes
through for the latter).
Why go to the Moon and especially if the plan is to set up a base which
is going to cost a fortune.
We have supposedly been there, so why not push our boundaries a bit
further and get on with the real job of landing some people on Mars.
If China simply sets its goal as safetly landing some astronauts on
Mars with no plan for their return, they could easily achieve this
within a few years.
We can assume they would provide enough resources so that they could
set up a base and be semi-self sufficient .ie enough food to survive
their optomistic lifetimes.
apparently China already has ten times the number of staff employed in
their space industry. India and Russia must also be thinking along the
same lines.
America and Europe would probably be best to rely on private enterprise
with a privately funded attempt to land on Mars which is really not any
more stupid or dangerous than the first attempts at getting to the
South Pole or to the top of Mt. Everest.
I am pretty sure that Burt Rutan would be thinking along these lines
(he actually has said this to me) and with the right finances would aim
to achieve this within his lifetime.



They could open up a Chinese Take-out, then our guys would have a place to
eat once we got there.

.

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