Re: Orlando Sentinal Poll: Majority think manned Mars mission a waste of money
Hi Mark,
Looking at the link that Keith posted (thanks!) It appears that they did give a cost for a manned mars mission:
Many of the questions included a price tag for programs such as the space station or a theoretical mission to Mars, estimated at more than $200 billion.
So, what this poll really shows is that, even if you inflate the cost of a Mars mission by a factor of four or five, 16 percent of the population still strongly supports it.
Sorry, Grondine, but this isn't exactly bad news. I'd be curious to see what the public opinion would be, if they were given more accurate numbers. Also, it'll be interesting to see how the efforts of humans-to-mars activists like James Cameron will sway public opinion...
The poll did show that currently, only 9% of the public thinks that humans-to-Mars should be NASA's top priority. Interestingly, the poll also showed that roughly 0% of the public thought that NEO detection should be NASA's top priority. Of course, the numbers of public opinion are always fluid, so it'll be interesting to see how the paranoid net-crank efforts of some NEO-detection activists will sway public opinion...
Cheers,
Nathan.