Thanks Robert -

You need to understand that there are still a few isolated people who truly believe that Mars is an Earth-like planet, and that if NASA either 1) devoted all of its resources to implementing Bob Zubirn's scheme, or 2) turned it all over to the private sector, why then we'd have another Earth within easy reach.

If you interupt these fantasies/reveries with any facts, they simply explode - hence the invective.

While I'm no psychologist or psychiatrist, evidence just annoys them, that is if their brains allow them to percieve it in the first place. They buy materials that support their pre-concieved notions, so nobody calls them about it.

As near as I can tell, as long as this kind of obsessive fanaticism and the ensuing nonsense dominate discussions about space, the US manned space program is not going to go anywhere -Its possible that if they are allowed to continue as they have been, they may succeed in ending the US manned effort entirely, leaving China to take over about 20 years or so from now.

ep