Is There Life On Mars ????

[Freddie]

Apparently now the EU has found 500 million Euros which will most likely soar to a hundred times that amount, to spend on a space vehicle to land on mars and explore it.

Why ??? What ferkin interest is there in it ?? Who the ferk cares whats on Mars??? what ferkin use is it to us any way???? Nobody asked me if i wanted my tax money spent on a ferkin nother space probe to Mars.

I suppose Damocles is going to have a fantastic reason for this, but i would rather have that tax money in my pocket and spend it on what i want not trips to Mars

 

[Sparky Jim]

Freddie, with respect I think you are being slightly nieve. I will agree that perhaps there are other things that 500 million of any money could be spent on, however i think there is something fundermental about ascertaining whether or not life exists on Mars. I say this not for the sake of life specifically on Mars, but rather that Life does occur elswhere in the Universe and that we, as a biological system, are not alone.

I appreciate that some may not be interested in this, but there may come a time when we need to vacate this planet, and knowing whether or not we will encounter life on Mars is important as it could be a serious threat to us.

Personally I would like to see such costs spread across the entire world though so that these become truly human endeavours, not American, European, Russian or whatever..if you understand the point I'm trying to make. However I do accept your view and agree to a certain degree as I have hinted at.

 

[Freddie]

I agree with everything you have said, but the Americans are already doing it so why have the EU got to do the same thing, are we now going to be in competition with the Americans and whoever in space????????

 

[kendor]

because it is something you don't agree with freddie there are others who feel it is worthwhile looking forward to the future our very existence may hinge on us finding out if mars can or did once support life. besides if we had to vote on every decision made nothing would get done.
there are many many things you could say are a waste of money, but what a grey sad world it would be if all the money spent stopped all of a sudden on things people believe to be a waste of money.
Taken to an extreme one person might begrudge money spent on playgrounds for kids if they are childless.
so look at the big picture we are as diverse a species as you can get our tastes differ greatly and that's what makes mankind so unique, don't think money all the time it's a boring subject anyway leave it to the accountants.
Let's make the world a better place for us all to enjoy and not just an elite few.

I agree with everything you have said, but the Americans are already doing it so why have the EU got to do the same thing, are we now going to be in competition with the Americans and whoever in space????????

Perhaps the time factor is more important than we first thought what with global warming and depletion of earth resources because of the population etc.

__________________________-
moderator

please note 10a

 

[Freddie]

You could be right, but when i see this stuff, i think back to when i was young in the school holidays in the early 70's and television never started untill about 4pm in week days as you had the trade test transmission card the rest of the day.

But on BB2 every hour they would show a short film which was called a trade test transmission, they were usually nature or films about pollution, and i remember the one which showed huge car scrap yards in America and in one was a knocked up version of the lunar moduale which landed on the moon with the saying---" Man he put man on the moon but couldnt be bothered to clean up his own back yard ".

If you know what that means you will know what i refer too.

 

[Sparky Jim]

I agree with everything you have said, but the Americans are already doing it so why have the EU got to do the same thing, are we now going to be in competition with the Americans and whoever in space????????

But if it is left to the US, then they will claim space for themselves and they will then have the potential to control the globe. This may sound scaremanogering, but it is not that much of a leap if you think about it. Even conventional weapons in orbit would be a serious threat that would be difficult to counter.

 

[kendor]

You could be right, but when i see this stuff, i think back to when i was young in the school holidays in the early 70's and television never started untill about 4pm in week days as you had the trade test transmission card the rest of the day.

But on BB2 every hour they would show a short film which was called a trade test transmission, they were usually nature or films about pollution, and i remember the one which showed huge car scrap yards in America and in one was a knocked up version of the lunar moduale which landed on the moon with the saying---" Man he put man on the moon but couldnt be bothered to clean up his own back yard ".

If you know what that means you will know what i refer too.

I understand the quote but i don't necessarily agree with it though.

Regarding the Test Card this was used so much in the old days to give engineers time for maintenance of very unreliable kit

Tube cameras for instance would need several lineups during the day.
as things have become more reliable these days there is no call for such breaks, so you only seem to get blank screens when badly maintained or lack of investment/obsolete equipment tends to fall over and a quick repair by a very rusty engineer is needed.

I agree with everything you have said, but the Americans are already doing it so why have the EU got to do the same thing, are we now going to be in competition with the Americans and whoever in space????????

But if it is left to the US, then they will claim space for themselves and they will then have the potential to control the globe. This may sound scaremanogering, but it is not that much of a leap if you think about it. Even conventional weapons in orbit would be a serious threat that would be difficult to counter.

Agreed they(USA)have shown total disregard for others property and resourses on this planet so who knows what they would get up to with free rein to other planets and their offerings.

 

[Richardp]

If they find oil the yanks will be there and if they find life they'll kill it off before it claims mineral rights.

 

[felix]

Sparky Jim wrote

I appreciate that some may not be interested in this, but there may come a time when we need to vacate this planet, and knowing whether or not we will encounter life on Mars is important as it could be a serious threat to us.

There's no "may" about it - unless we can figure out how to stop our dying star from devouring the first four planets. It follows from this that Mars will not be far enough but getting there will be good practice. Beam me up somebody.

 

[AdamW]

I suppose Damocles is going to have a fantastic reason for this, but i would rather have that tax money in my pocket and spend it on what i want not trips to Mars

I've got a good reason

These kinds of programmes are not just scientific, but also political. If we send off these ESA probes, then people will think "Hey, yes, we are accomplishing these things as Europe."

If the EU wants people to warm to Europe, then they need to make people feel proud of Europe. Space missions are about the only thing Europe has done that I feel is worthy of pride. The current UK government is comprised of luddites who have no desire to explore space lest the great sun-god rains down its fury. If we didn't spend money on space, Blair would just p*ss it away on another big white dome anyway.

It is unfortunate that BAE Systems sold it's large share of Astrium to EADS (the European equivalent of BAE Systems) though... Yet another area of British expertise sold abroad.

 

[Richardp]

Well if they do find another planet for us to escape to we won't be picked, I'm joining the freemasons, better practice playing the piano with me trouser leg pulled up.

 

[AdamW]

By the time the sun poses any threat to us directly, humans will have evolved way beyond where we are now anyway.

 

[2scoops0406]

Freddie, with respect I think you are being slightly nieve. I will agree that perhaps there are other things that 500 million of any money could be spent on, however i think there is something fundermental about ascertaining whether or not life exists on Mars. I say this not for the sake of life specifically on Mars, but rather that Life does occur elswhere in the Universe and that we, as a biological system, are not alone.

I appreciate that some may not be interested in this, but there may come a time when we need to vacate this planet, and knowing whether or not we will encounter life on Mars is important as it could be a serious threat to us.

Personally I would like to see such costs spread across the entire world though so that these become truly human endeavours, not American, European, Russian or whatever..if you understand the point I'm trying to make. However I do accept your view and agree to a certain degree as I have hinted at.

Jim not necessarily disageeing with you, but I'd be interested to know why we need to know if there is life on mars.

 

[AdamW]

Jim not necessarily disageeing with you, but I'd be interested to know why we need to know if there is life on mars.

In case it is concealing WMDs

As a man who works in Industry, you understand that for some reason we need to spend a lot of money on stuff that seems pointless to all but those directly involved in it. We could make an analogy between this space exploration doobry and HR.

Both cost a lot of money and offer no real benefit to any of us, but in the same way that having an HR department increases the number of nice-looking young females strutting about the office, exploring Mars will give us some nice pictures to look at.

 

[Thermo]

No one would have believd in the last years of the last centuary that we were being watched across the voids of space, DUN DUN DUN.......DUN DUN DUN

Nope theres no one up there, if there is theyll sure as hell avoid this mixed up place!