Right now Bill Gates could fund a private mission to Mars with not much more than pocket change.
As modern coivilisation progresses, there will be more and more major industrialists who can afford to indulge a whim. Percival Lowell was the son of a rich textiles family and he set out to build one of the biggest telescopes in the world, and get famous for studying Mars.
You've seen the involvement of technology millionaires in trips to space and Spaceship One.
One day, someone will be able to put up the cash for the first manned trip to Mars, without involving any governments.
They will also, if they so wish, be able to build a hotel on the Moon, or a small habitat on an asteroid.
The future will be a strange place. They will do things differently there...
(See, you can have dreams without being unscientific)
Space/Science » in reply to Public support for sending men to Mar dropped to near zero at the time of Mariner IV
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The whole thread (31 posts)
- meteorites show Mars was always frozen
- Nice PR but not much else.
- The freezing point of water is dependent on solutes.
- re: meteorites show Mars was always frozen
- re: While the "always frozen" Mars scenario
- re: While the "always frozen" Mars scenario
- re: Chill
- The NASA Public Relations Machine and the Warm-and-Wet fairytale
- re: While the "always frozen" Mars scenario
- 4 billion versus 3.5 billion years
- Interesting.
- re: Frozen Mars