One of the great debate threads about space exploration made me wonder if people who remember the space race are more in favorite of manned space missions in general than people born after the excitement had passed.
So let’s test my hypothisis, shall we?
Question one: Are you old enough to remember seeing the moon landing in 1969? (yes or no suffices if you’d rather not give your age)
Question two: Agree or Disagree- We should be attempting a manned space mission by the end of the decade. (if you chose to elaborate, please remember this is a poll, not a debate with other posters. There are several GD threads for that)
!. Yes, I remember very the landing well as I was born in 1951. I remember watching it TV and thought things would move towards more manned explorations.
I would agree with a vision to go to the Moon again and why not Mars? Going to need a better propulsion system though.
It’s about damn time. I don’t think by the end of the Decade is possible and I’d perfer they take their time a little bit, but It’s nice to see them working in that direction, developing new spacecraft instead of eternally mucking around with the damn shuttle.
Finish the ISS, Dump the Shuttle and develop something that can actually get to mars.
Though I can imagine a bunch of soldiers killing themselves when Bush annouces we need to “liberate” Mars, who have obviously been shooting down our space probes and failing to respond to our requests to turn over any WMD/Al Queda elements lurking there.
No (I was in the womb when Armstrong took the first stroll, so I don’t remember the subsequent missions either)
Where do I sign up?
(We should skip the Moon, though, and make a push for Mars. There’s lots to learn by establishing a presence on the Moon, but we need to get the public jazzed up with a symbolic mission right away. Pragmatism can come later. We need romance first.)
I want to see something come out of the ISS first other than a feel good international effort before NASA goes looking elsewhere. But a hell yeah for missions to Moon/Mars. Having a launch date by the end of this decade is kind of pushing it though. Doesn’t NASA have to cook up completely new spacecraft designs and propulsion system?
Yes! But only if scientific missions are not sacrificed.
But can I point out that people of my generation (I was born 1974) still remember the space race of sorts? I saw one of the earliest Shuttle flights and saw one of the full-scale Shuttle models (might have been the Enterprise) as it was paraded around the world. I also watched out for news of the Soviet space program, including the successful launch of the shuttle Buran. Back then it was unthinkable that NASA would ever cooperate with the Russians.
Born 1981, so my earliest space memories are more to do with shuttles than moon-walks. I don’t even really remember Challenger, except from adults’ reactions to it.
Do I think we should go to space? Definitely. As others have said, the close of the decade is probably a little too soon - I’d like to see launches aimed at a permanent Moon base by about 2015, following on to Mars once we’ve got a stable base on the Moon - say 2025-2030.
