Neil de Grasse Tyson advocates "militarized" space race to Mars -
http://thespacereporter.com/2015/05/neil-de-grasse-tyson-advocates-militarized-space-race-mars/
That's the only way that enough money could be made available for such a project all at once -- and that the mission would involve sending people to Mars to settle and thrive rather than to die. Furthermore, as was true of the build-up to the Apollo missions, the economy would boom gloriously, and for once we might have an economic surplus. Go Neil! :-)
And while the idea of an internationally cooperative Mars mission is nice, it has to entail *cooperation* -- which the Great Nations of the world aren't very good on. Putin's Russia cooperate with America? China cooperative with India? Pakistan cooperative with India -- or Israel? You have GOT to be KIDDING me! And somebody needs to do this NOW, while we still can -- and why not us? We have all that data from our Apollo and Mars missions under our belt, so why not put it to use?
That's the only way that enough money could be made available for such a project all at once -- and that the mission would involve sending people to Mars to settle and thrive rather than to die. Furthermore, as was true of the build-up to the Apollo missions, the economy would boom gloriously, and for once we might have an economic surplus. Go Neil! :-)
And while the idea of an internationally cooperative Mars mission is nice, it has to entail *cooperation* -- which the Great Nations of the world aren't very good on. Putin's Russia cooperate with America? China cooperative with India? Pakistan cooperative with India -- or Israel? You have GOT to be KIDDING me! And somebody needs to do this NOW, while we still can -- and why not us? We have all that data from our Apollo and Mars missions under our belt, so why not put it to use?