# Trump demands Mars be colonized by next Tuesday. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 27, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498 "2019-01-27T21:40:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/1 "2019-01-27T21:40:01Z")
Okay, not quite literally, but [asking for a manned landing before 2020](https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-ordered-nasa-send-humans-mars-next-year-2756008?amp=1) is only barely different. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/2 "2019-01-27T21:50:42Z")
I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/3 "2019-01-27T22:02:45Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, not quite literally, but [asking for a manned landing before 2020](https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-ordered-nasa-send-humans-mars-next-year-2756008?amp=1) is only barely different. Damn you for making me defend Donald Trump, but I’d say that asking a NASA administrator “Can we do this?” is, in fact, different from demanding that we do. Especially when we’re talking about someone who, as we’ve seen, is perfectly capable of making actual demands (e.g. “Give me $5 billion for my Wall or I shut down the government”). > [@](#): > > As revealed in the book, Robert Lightfoot Jr., the acting NASA administrator in 2017, talked to Trump about the matter. The administrator divulged to the president the American space program’s plans about sending a rover to the red planet in 2020 before launching a human-crewed mission by the 2030s. Trump was apparenty displeased at the thought of the human-crewed mission not happening during his term. > > “What if we sent NASA’s budget through the roof, but focused entirely on that instead of whatever else you’re doing now. Could it work then?” Trump said in the book’s excerpt shared by the Intelligencer. > > When Trump suggested that if not during his first term, then NASA could speed things up “a little bit” just so the human-crewed mission to Mars would be realized during his second term should he be re-elected. However, Lightfoot made it clear to the president that his request was impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/4 "2019-01-27T22:04:37Z")
And he thinks it’s all about money as usual. Reportedly he told a NASA advisor they can get all the funds they needed so they can get to Mars before 2020. They explained how it can’t be done yet but I doubt that mattered. > **[How Trump Offered NASA Unlimited Funding to Put People on Mars by 2020](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/trump-offered-nasa-unlimited-funding-to-go-to-mars-by-2020.html)** > > “What if I gave you all the money you could ever need?” the president asked a baffled NASA official, according to former aide Cliff Sims. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/5 "2019-01-27T22:06:19Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. Hell yeah! Shows how little grasp he has of even the basics. Like: it would take most of a year to get even a one-way, happy-to-die-on-Mars just-to-be-the-first-one-there one-man mission to Mars. That mission would require food, water, and oxygen for that most of a year, and of course the capsule would have to be airtight, shielded from cosmic radiation, and generally capable of protecting the human inside and his life support systems for that most of a year. Also, it would need a landing mechanism, since even landing an unmanned craft on Mars is touch-and-go. Lifting all that out of Earth gravity will require one big damn rocket; do we still have any mothballed Saturn 5 rockets, and would one of those even be big enough? I’m sure that if he’s actually brought this up with anyone from NASA, they’ve explained this and more to him, but **he’s not capable of grasping, let alone retaining, this much information.** The people who voted for this toddler should continually apologize to the rest of us. Damn, I miss having a President who had brain cells to rub together. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/6 "2019-01-27T22:30:51Z")
To be fair, Trump said this back in April 2017. And he was reportedly asking for it to happen within his first term, not before 2020. Expecting a manned mission to Mars within a four year time frame is dumb. But it’s not quite as stupid as expecting one in eleven months. (It says a lot about Trump that I’m defending him by saying he was only dumb on this occasion.) ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/7 "2019-01-27T22:50:44Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. He might go if you show him some of [Frank Frazetta’s](https://www.google.com/search?q=mars+frank+frazetta&hl=en-us&prmd=insv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3sK6-hY_gAhVl6YMKHQEnC_0Q_AUoAXoECA4QAQ&biw=1024&bih=672) art and tell him that he could be Emperor of Mars 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/8 "2019-01-27T22:53:48Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, not quite literally That’s the best way to interpret this particular president. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/9 "2019-01-28T00:28:01Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That’s the best way to interpret this particular president. He (Trump) is so like a few of the bosses I’ve had, who think that at the point where they say “make it happen”, all the hard work has been done. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/10 "2019-01-28T01:32:23Z")
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this presidential term is out, of landing a President of the United States on Mars and return-- uh… I mean… Yeah! U-S-A! U-S-A! ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/11 "2019-01-28T01:37:59Z")
We do these things not because they are hard but because they are completely impossible. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/12 "2019-01-28T05:14:42Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. There are plenty other members of his administration that should be included. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/13 "2019-01-28T05:43:38Z")
Too bad Tom Price wasn’t still around to arrange a good flight deal. Was it Mulvaney who has a problem with air travel? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/14 "2019-01-28T06:06:54Z")
Fast, Cheap and Good. You can have two of three. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/15 "2019-01-28T12:35:55Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. I wouldn’t trust him up there. He’d aim an Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator at Earth if it obstructed his view of Venus. He’s just fucking stupid. The JFK challenge took the better part of a decade. Going to Mars is several orders of magnitude more difficult. Throwing money at problems doesn’t solve them, it’s going to take a lot of time. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/16 "2019-01-29T01:22:51Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Throwing money at problems doesn’t solve them It usually has for Trump. That’s why we shouldn’t elect underdeveloped toddlers to the White House. He actually doesn’t understand the difference between “get a porn star to keep her mouth shut” and “travel to a different planet and live through it”. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/17 "2019-01-29T01:47:04Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > It usually has for Trump. That’s why we shouldn’t elect underdeveloped toddlers to the White House. He actually doesn’t understand the difference between “get a porn star to keep her mouth shut” and “travel to a different planet and live through it”. Aybe he would go if we told him he could rule the entire planet and all the inhabitants ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/18 "2019-01-29T02:31:25Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Fast, Cheap and Good. > > You can have two of three. To be fair, he’s clearly saying make it Fast and Good, and don’t worry about Cheap. But I think the point is that “Fast” isn’t actually an option. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/19 "2019-01-29T02:41:41Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’d be in favor of a manned mission to Mars next year, if Mr. Trump was the sole crew. Well, he produces enough crap that he ought to be able to grow a bumper crop of potatoes… ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498/20 "2019-01-29T02:53:45Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > And he thinks it’s all about money as usual. Reportedly he ]u old a NASA advisor they can get all the funds they needed so they can get to Mars before 2020. They explained how it can’t be done yet but I doubt that mattered. > > [Trump Offered NASA Unlimited Funding to Go to Mars By 2020](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/trump-offered-nasa-unlimited-funding-to-go-to-mars-by-2020.html) Steal it from the money that was supposed to go to Puerto Rico and Texas etc for hurricane aid??? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-demands-mars-be-colonized-by-next-tuesday/828498.md?page=2)