# NASA Has Mars Announcement **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537 "2015-09-26T02:47:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/81 "2015-09-30T04:34:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Andrew O’Hehir: [ **“The Martian” and the big Mars discovery: Here’s why we have to go, no matter what it costs** > Was this week’s big NASA announcement a movie tie-in or a leftist plot? Either way, Mars is calling](http://www.salon.com/2015/09/29/the_martian_and_the_big_mars_discovery_heres_why_we_have_to_go_no_matter_what_it_costs/) What a stupid article. He tries to insult people into agreeing with him, but “What are you, chicken?” is not a reason to spend up to a trillion dollars of other people’s money to do something completely useless, and sending half a dozen people to a dim, cold, irradiated wasteland whose only redeeming feature is that it’s a bitch to get to _is_ completely useless. ---
**Author:** ![McDoogins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@McDoogins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDoogins)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/82 "2015-09-30T04:44:03Z")
Did that colonization group that went to Mars leave yet? It would appear they’ll be there between 2022 and 2027. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/83 "2015-09-30T05:17:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Why is it always Mars, though? Why does no pol ever announce, “I challenge America to make a manned trip to Venus by the end of the decade!”? Venus is at least as scientifically\*\* interesting.\*\* Venus is cloudy, it’s 400 degrees and full of sulphuric acid. TV cameras won’t work there. Therefore it is not as interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/84 "2015-09-30T05:24:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Why is it always Mars, though? Why does no pol ever announce, “I challenge America to make a manned trip to Venus by the end of the decade!”? Venus is at least as scientifically interesting. Because the surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead and has more than ninety times the sea level Earth atmospheric pressure. The only planets we could concievable land on are Mars and Pluto, plus some of the larger asteroids and outer planet moons. Aside from Earth’s moon, Mars is the only orbium coprenicoid that we could practically visit and establish an exploration outpost upon with anything resembling convention propulsion technology. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/85 "2015-09-30T05:46:48Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Because the surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead and has more than ninety times the sea level Earth atmospheric pressure. The only planets we could concievable land on are Mars and Pluto, plus some of the larger asteroids and outer planet moons. Aside from Earth’s moon, Mars is the only orbium coprenicoid that we could practically visit and establish an exploration outpost upon with anything resembling convention propulsion technology. > > Stranger How about Mercury?, IIRC there are areas near the poles that are relatively hospitable… in the same way the Moon is hospitable, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/86 "2015-09-30T06:35:18Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > How about Mercury?, IIRC there are areas near the poles that are relatively hospitable… in the same way the Moon is hospitable, but still. Approaching Mercury would require enduring a factor of four increase in solar radiation , a much higher incidence of charged particle radiation, and a greater delta-vee than going to Jupiter. The most intersting, reasonably accessible places in the Solar System are the Jovian and Saturnian moons. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/87 "2015-09-30T06:54:47Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > orbium coprenicoid We have a googlewhack!!! A search for “orbium coprenicoid” returns only one hit.(this thread, of course) I love this place. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/88 "2015-09-30T08:03:10Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > We have a googlewhack!!! > A search for “orbium coprenicoid” returns only one hit.(this thread, of course) > > I love this place. > > 🙂 Just yesterday, my almost-five-year-old child asked me if the moon were a planet. I said “No, but…,” and I tried to think of a succinct way to explain that it’s very much LIKE a planet, for many purposes (such as general questions regarding human vs. robotic exploration.) Now I have a general term for (larger) moons, (larger) asteroids, and planets: OCs! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/89 "2015-09-30T15:06:21Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > What a stupid article. He tries to insult people into agreeing with him, but “What are you, chicken?” is not a reason to spend up to a trillion dollars of other people’s money to do something completely useless, and sending half a dozen people to a dim, cold, irradiated wasteland whose only redeeming feature is that it’s a bitch to get to _is_ completely useless. We still don’t have profit-making mines or factories or retirement homes on the Moon. That does not mean going there was useless. Scientific exploration is never useless. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/90 "2015-09-30T15:07:52Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Venus is cloudy, it’s 400 degrees and full of sulphuric acid. > > TV cameras won’t work there. > Therefore it is not as interesting. Any planet where the atmosphere dissolves the probes is **interesting,** at least! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/91 "2015-10-03T09:00:40Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > We have a googlewhack!!! > A search for “orbium coprenicoid” returns only one hit.(this thread, of course) > > I love this place. > > 🙂 It’s supposed to be spelled **orbium copernicoid**. It was used by **Stranger** in another [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18525398) (don’t go there unless you want to revisit the latest iteration of the Pluto wars). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537/92 "2015-10-03T15:44:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Any planet where the atmosphere dissolves the probes is **interesting,** at least! 😃 Yeah, try bringing Matt Damon back from \*that \*one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-has-mars-announcement/732537.md?page=4)