"I've tried to stop calling you an idiot, but see you have not..."

Mr Vancil, I am still waiting for an apology for the insults you made when I brought up modified shuttle re-entry as a way to deal with damage...

"I don't care what your personal opinion is."

Same here

"Polls don't support your contentions about manned Mars missions."

You view the poll responses as indicating some kind of intense interest by the general public.
No such interest exists, or else we would already have landed men on Mars.

"What you are really trying to suggest is that in the early 1960s we were "seriously" planing to send people to Mars."

Yes.

"Because we seriously were sending people to the Moon."

No. You do not understand. The moon was seen merely a stepping stone at the time - Mars was believed to be Earth-like, and it was the ultimate goal. Major programs were underway to proceed there after the Moon, but in the US these were ended after Mariner probes showed that Mars was not Earth-like.

"This is false."

Your understanding is mistaken, not my statements of fact.

"We had serious plans to send people to Mars from before the spaceage began, but without the political will to do so it is meaningless."

Exactly - but in a democratic country "political will" generally expresses the views of the people. My point is that when Mars was believed to be Earth-like, that "political will" existed, but after the Mariner series of probes showed Mars was not Earth-like, the public's "will" changed.

"You argued that Dan Goldin being a extreme Mars fan should have been able to push thru a manned mission. Clue, check what the Clinton Administration's views were on manned missions to Mars, during 8 of Dan's 10 years. Without political will no government run manned mission will be run."

There was no overwhelming popular support for manned Mars flight. None.

"Anything lasting longer than 5 to 6 fiscal years is probably dead on arrival. Anything costing as much as STS and ISS does in a year is probably dead. The argument that if only we could get ISS and STS off NASA budget then we would go to Mars is not clued into the political realities."

I agree here - Tumlinson was acting like an idiot.

"If NASA loses any of it's manned program monies it's not likely to see new monies for another project without political support."

Political support already exists for dealing with the impact hazard, and as Dr Mazanek's team has shown, the best way of doing that is with man tended Moon based facilities.

"Bush could give a rats ass for Space Exploration or moving this economy anywhere unless it keeps him in office."

I think that you might be surprised by the President's views on ensuring the safety and well being of the American people.

"You go ahead and take your poll. As I've said before I have done exactly what you suggest and it doesn't support you in the least. People say, "Oh, the dinosaurs dead thousands of years ago! That wont to happen to us today, we have the military to protect us!"

"Impact harzards are not high on the government's list of things to protect us against, get over it and move on!

Dealing with the impact hazard is not high on Ed Weiler's or David Morrison's list of things to protect us against, but their views do not reflect that of the general populace.

ep
--Chris Vancil