Quote:
Originally Posted by Angst
I respectfully disagree. You place too much emphasis on exploration/colonization. What matters most is the information gained per dollar spent. We learn far more from projects like the Hubble space telescope and the Large Hadron Collider, on a per dollar basis, than we we learn from planning a mission to Mars.
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I must respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement - sort of.
I don't think we learn *far* more from those project, we just learn different things the Hubble and the LHC will tell more about the fundamentals of the universe while planning a mars (or any extended space mission) will yield us more practical results.
For all of the detractors and those that insist on focusing on what is in front of us, what better place to discover more efficient, more environmentally friendly technology than in planning and carrying out a mission to mars? Where better to find ways of producing clean, inexpensive power? Is there anything that would provide more incentive for devising a recycling program that returns as much of the input as possible? I don't think so.