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Ok, I think I get your point. I assume your talking about the desert/arctic research stations.
I don't think they're hyping anything. Clearly some of the value of
these projects is the publicity they've recieved.
But in an era where NASA is all but prevented from spending any
serious dough on human Mars missions, I think these efforts are
laudable.
Besides, nowhere have they said that Devon Island, Utah, the outback
or even Vatnajokull (Iceland) is more than a superficial analog to the real thing, just the closest thing you can find on Earth that is politically and geographically convienent to the Mars Society.
All that they're doing are systematic studies of exploration methods, logistics, some crew psychology and some actual (gasp!) opportunistic
research.
To read it from the source:
http://arctic.marssociety.org/about/background.html
Trust me, nobody is fooling themselves or trying to fool others by
hypeing these projects. Having said that, i'll admit that the "why
are we doing this" sections tend to be a bit hyperbolic but hey,
nothing great has ever been accomplished without passion.
And yes, I'm one of those card carrying MarsHEDS.
Cheers,
ET
Space/Science » in reply to Re: Geez!!
Double oops, sorry bout that folks!