NASA officially announces manned mission to Mars.

Desmond

Desmond

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NASA is launching its boldest test flight in decades this week. An unmanned capsule will head off on Thursday to reach a distance of 3,600 miles from Earth—the farthest space mission with a craft designed to accommodate humans since the final Apollo 17 trip to the moon in 1972.

Called Orion, the program will mark a key initial step toward a human mission to Mars. Orion is also designed to excite the public’s imagination for deep-space exploration, much as the Apollo moon missions sparked an interest in space and produced civilian engineering triumphs. With the first test flight on Thursday, NASA wants to make it abundantly clear that much of the hardware that can get humans to Mars already exists and is ready to fly.

“My hope is that when we fly the capsule on Thursday, it will energize the public and energize that middle schooler [who] isn’t quite sure what he wants to do, but he likes math and science,” says Richard Boitnott, an engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

No one is about to strap on a suit and launch to Mars any time soon. Despite NASA’s excitement, the pace of development—driven by Congressional funding—means that the next Orion test flight won’t happen for nearly three years. The first flight with astronauts isn’t planned to take place until six years from now.
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Source: NASA's Orion Test Flight Gets Us Closer to Mars - Businessweek
 
Vyom

Vyom

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Politics will also come during Mars mission. I think ISRO should join the race too. If they can send an unmanned mission at such low cost, they can surely try to send some people?
 
Anorion

Anorion

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^the unmanned mission was low cost, but it's not like they achieved anything more than just getting there
the budgets are calculated differently, the US calculations factors in the cost of the salaries of the employees involved, transportation costs of the components etc, which we do not calculate in the cost
don't think doing something cheaply is something to be so proud of anyway. There were heavy compromises every step of the way, including reducing the payload and having to choose between a longer life or a closer orbit

Anyway, here is a list of planned missions by ISRO
Welcome To Indian Space Research Organisation :: Current Programme

Don't think a manned mission to mars at this stage will help anyone. IMO better for science, tech and medicine to tackle the challenges of permanent undersea human settlements at this point.

If this Mars Mission happens, the most useful bit will be getting back from there.
 
Nerevarine

Nerevarine

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Anorion said:
^the unmanned mission was low cost, but it's not like they achieved anything more than just getting there
the budgets are calculated differently, the US calculations factors in the cost of the salaries of the employees involved, transportation costs of the components etc, which we do not calculate in the cost
don't think doing something cheaply is something to be so proud of anyway. There were heavy compromises every step of the way, including reducing the payload and having to choose between a longer life or a closer orbit

Anyway, here is a list of planned missions by ISRO
Welcome To Indian Space Research Organisation :: Current Programme

Don't think a manned mission to mars at this stage will help anyone. IMO better for science, tech and medicine to tackle the challenges of permanent undersea human settlements at this point.

If this Mars Mission happens, the most useful bit will be getting back from there.
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you have picked my interest, fellow grasshopper
 
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