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I am curious what other Hubskiers believe the chances are that the USA makes a successful trip to Mars.
I am personally of the opinion that the only reason that we made it to the moon was because of the political climate of the time. We absolutely had to beat USSR to the moon as a display of military and technological dominance. Without those militaristic and political pressures, I don't think American government will ever care enough about space exploration to make it to Mars, even though it is definitely within our reach.
I am apt to agree with you. It's sad, but I think the people that could decide if the US had a manned Mars mission are the leaders in the Chinese government. If they started pushing hard, that might light a fire under the US, but I don't see another way atm. In fact, I think a private Mars mission might happen before a US one. If were Pres, I would absolutely do it. But, I don't feel the US is in an age of big ideas.
Some time ago, I wrote about another issue. It might be that robotic missions will always remain more attractive, and that preempt us from manned exploration for a long time. If not forever.
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riemannman · 4649 days ago · link ·
Thanks for the link! That was very insightful. You talk about how humans are more flexible than robots. I would argue they are substantially more flexible. We would gain so much from a successful trip to Mars.
On an unrelated note, how do you italicize? Is it like it is in Reddit? (testing to see if that worked)