MoonToMars Update 

President's Commission member Laurie Leshin recently spoke with the BBC about the need to send human explorers to Mars:

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You can imagine how Opportunity has been running around at this beautiful rock outcrop on the surface of Mars. An astronaut up there would have paced that place out and had it understood within a day and we've waited a month-and-a-half.
...
Well the hope I have is to some day be at the 25th anniversary of the first human mission to Mars. I'd like to have the first astronaut that went there and walked on the surface, stand up, talk about her experience and say: "I was inspired when I was a kid after seeing little rocks from Mars in the Smithsonian and that's what made me want to go.
And if I could be involved with bringing those materials back and inspiring that person that is going to be that first Mars astronaut, it would just be extraordinarily exciting. I'd be happy to be an old lady seeing that.

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(Though I'd note if she believes the first person on Mars will still be a kid when the first rocks are brought to Mars, then "old lady" is right--NASA has no plans for a Martian sample return mission before 2014 [though that could change, the ESA may launch one before then--but first they have to learn how to land on Mars], and it would probably be another 25 years before someone who is a kid then could walk on Mars, meaning that the 25th anniversary of that landing would likely be some 60 years away. Personally, I prefer to think that the first person on Mars is currently at least in elementary school.]

:: :: 09:11 :: David :: [permalink] ::