Chinese first to land on Mars?

[icytailmark]

The shift of economy from West to East, will the China be the first to land on Mars??? I think they will be the first to land on Mars because I dont see America being able to afford to do it.

[supernova1965]

That's fine by me as long as we as a species do it. To me countries are where we all have our houses but the Planet Earth is our home and we are all neighbours and should have patriotism for our planet atleast until we join the United Federation of Planets.:thumbsup:

[astroron]

Could we see a combined effort to land on mars in the future as I don't see that any country can really afford to go it alone :question:
I have seen various guestimates from Forty Billion upto one forty Billion dollars so it would make sense to combine all our resources rather than just one country.
Cheers :thumbsup:

[supernova1965]

+1 from me on that idea Ron

[Poita]

Ah, that is only two years air-conditioning bill.. ;)
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning

To be fair, a more sensible article is here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2011/03/28/the-real-cost-of-u-s-in-libya-two-billion-dollars-per-day/

But either way, $40 billion could be afforded by the US if they had the will, and decided to cut 'defense' spending, but I don't think either will happen.
A chinese funded, global solution would be marvellous.

[icytailmark]

i personally would love to see an aussie astronaut on the Mars team!!

[icytailmark]

no wonder the al qaeda hate america so much the soliders get Air Con!!!!!

[Paul Haese]

Just to get there is going to cost a fortune. The "space ship" needs to have a habitat area which would be in my opinion need to be twice the size of an average house. That is so the crew don't kill each other and so they can exercise. The idea of putting them in a tin can for 6 months is well at best stupid and at worst a disaster. Step on to Mars and fracture a hip.

So with that sized habitat, it will need something around half a kilometer long for life support systems and propulsion. Water recycling, air and CO2 creation and cleansing. Something to create a magnetic field to protect the astronauts they don't die of radiation poisoning on the way there or the way back.

That means 40 billion is just a start. This is going to require many nations getting this together and then it just might succeed. It will not happen in our life time. The economics, the political will and the fight for oil is just part of the reasons why it will not happen. Going to the moon is one thing, just think about travelling in space and being separated from home for at least 18 months, maybe 2.5 years. That makes a week seem like childs play.

[Ric]

If they were to invest that $40 billion and expand/upgrade the ISS and give it a propulsion system that might be a better way to go.

They are going to deorbit it at some point in time so we might as well get our moneys worth out of it.

[ZeroID]

I don't think that thing is designed to take large amounts of thrust and speed and it needs regular refueling and restocking. Also it has no real radiation sheilding being as it spends all it's time inside the Van Alen belts away from the worst of the storm.

[Poita]

They could exercise in a pretty small area, but the psychological strain of a journey of that duration would be extreme.
How big was the space in the Mars500 experiment where they locked people away for the duration?
They should be 'landing' back on earth in November from memory, or has it fallen over?

[Poita]

Ah, found it here:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/index.html

[Sardukar]

The USA can actually easilly afford to go to mars, to bad they don't want to have anything to do with putting humans in space and are letting the private sector take care of that.

However if a country like China showed serious interest in a mars mission, that might just get the yanks to pull the finger out.

[PCH]

Hmmm.. nice idea Ron,

but if I'm not mistaken, don't most of us have less than nothing in the pot to contribute with at this point in time? Certainly I can't see the Europeans contributing much to such a scheme as they're all busy scrambling for the last loaf of bread to come off the press. Uncle Sam is not much better.

China, Russia, Germany and possibly India are the only ones left on the planet with any money. And I don't see that changing any time soon unfortunately.

Just my 2c :thumbsup:

[traveller]

Interesting discussion so far. The ISS is not built for space missions, so it's out of the question. In anycase, the cost of upgrading it to an interplanetary vehicle will be more than building a dedicated one.
It will take an international effort, I think even the Chinese will acknowledge that, given the cost, technological know how, etc.
The real issue is where to start: earth or in space.
IMHO, to take off from earth will be too costly. The ISS COULD be upgraded to an "assembly factory" to build the interplanetary vehicle. The other option is to use the moon as a space port or assembly factory. But one needs to explore the moon fully to see which is a more suitable option. Eitherway, space launch is a cheaper option than an earth launch.
The logistics of that will be HUGE, hence the international efforts required etc. Then one has to consider the return journey (unless we build colony ships with one way tickets for the astros...).
2050 will be the earliest something will take place, that's my (un)educated guess. :lol:
Bo

[TrevorW]

proposed and possible propulsion systems would reduce travel time too six months or less

:thumbsup:

[wavelandscott]

I reckon this is right, if some country announces they are going to try that will get the money flowing just like the race to the moon during the cold war

[tlgerdes]

Well, our goverment has spent more than that propping up our local economy over the last 3 years, maybe we should have bankrolled the project. :lol:

[traveller]

On a related issue, the first Chinese space station module just blasted off http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/china-launches-module-for-space-station-20110930-1kzxj.html

[TrevorW]

This may be setting the ground

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/chinas-space-station/

[strongmanmike]

Sorry but the private sector will do zip if there is no profit, so could somone please explain where they think the private sector would profit from working on putting man on Mars...?

Visionary projects can only go forward when there is political will to use government (the peoples) money to facilitate much of it, big ideas like this require big investments and solid conviction against inevitably histerical (conservative) political opposition.

:thumbsup:

[Nortilus]

the chinese might be the first there, but it'll be australian steel that gets them there :D

[Hans Tucker]

Will never happen..Australia spends more money trying to put a gold medal around the neck of Olympic hopefulls than on Scientific ventures. We had a promising Space program operating from Woomera but we allowed it to erode away. The closest thing we had to an Aussie Astronaut was Scully Powers and Andy Thomas and even these two prominent figures could convince the government to invest in a space program.

China being the first on Mars would be the worst outcome because their motives will be self serving...just my 2 cents worth.

[Zaps]

Sad but true.



Yes, everyone else would do it "for the good of Humanity", right? That's why the USA wanted to be the first on the moon - it had NOTHING to do with politics or the USSR.

;) :lol:

[Hans Tucker]

Ok..granted the comment wasn't overly a smart one. Any country serves its own interests but back in the 60's the progress and success (and failures) of the US space program and the landing on the Moon were openly shared with the world.

In reality China or any other country will not make it to Mars alone..it is a costly endeavour which can only be equally shared by a group of nations but that is a difficult issue in its self...just look at the problems that plagued the development of the Euro Fighter.

[Visionoz]

Yep, Aussie steel - owned by the Chinese :P

Cheers
Bill

[Mariposa]

the thing is, the goverment in China can build anything they want without any budget constraint because they don't have opposition, nobody can protest if they don't agree with the government plans.
Most of the problems in western countries usually have to do with politics which, in time, lead to budget/time/resources/staff problems. That is something Chinese government doesn't need to worry about.
They can achieve anything as long as they have the technology to get there....or the money to buy it.