Voted never. This isnt the 50’s/60’s any more, with visions of flying cars and stories of lost civilisations being found there. It just doesnt have the romantic selling point it needs to be a political goer and it takes too long to be a useful political selling point.
As in I think Bush just made noises for that reason, gets most of the political advantage of being a ‘man of vision’ without the downside of watching it turn into the inevitable money sink it would end up being.
Otara
Big dreams & visionary goals…are dead.
No one is going to Mars.
They’d rather spend the money on corporate welfare, drug war command posts, & building new jails.
Whose to say that America cannot dream great dreams again? Unless you’re going to say humanity will die out in a few centuries, its pretty much inevitable someday someone’s going to land on Mars.
A more important question would be about who will land humans on Mars and have them return to Earth alive.
Google.
Voted for a multinational team, the only sure member being Russia, with US/Canada/EU being potential partners. Japan’s space program is too weak and plagued by failures to be of much help. India and South Korea might be more valuable minor players in any such effort.
The space program of China is all about Han nationalism and overcoming feelings of technological backwardness. Such motivations are unlike;y to lead them into co-operating with other countries.
And the astronaut will immediately whip out his smart phone to check in on facebook, and post a couple of pics.
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I voted multinational as I imagine it is as likely as not someone will do it some day.
But my opinion is really pretty similar to Rickjay’s - not in my lifetime at the very least.
The US will begin to lose the science war in a few decades. We simply don’t have he will to pour money into research. The public has been taught that private businesses are capable of throwing that kind of money around. China is mobilizing large research development projects as we speak. China also has the will to lose an astronaut here and there on the first failed mission. I expect the first few missions to fail in disaster.
I think Russia, but for a real reason.
I really don’t think think an Asian country will be first. America and Russia have a history with space. They’re also vastly competetive nations. I also think if China gets to the moon, we’ll find a reason. We have no reason to be competitive yet. If they land on the moon tomorrow, we’ll have beaten by almost 50 years. Once they start eyeing Mars, America and Russia will be there. You don’t start this late in the game and “win”.
So China can poke Americans in the eye with the bigger pointier stick.
Why would China want to poke the US with a stick? It’s already having a fine time dumping its crap on us.
The 21st century is supposed to be the Chinese Century. China wants to be the new superpower and the best way to demonstrate your nation’s supremacy is to do something that none of your rivals were able to do.
Space milestones are one big way to do that. Russia did it by sending the first ship into orbit and then sending the first man into space. America surpassed Russia by putting the first man on the moon. China would surpass America by landing the first man on Mars.
It would be China’s way of telling everyone on Earth “We’re the future and America is the past.”
Nothing much seems to be happening-since they orbited two guys in an upgraded Soyuz (40 year old design).
They don’t seem to in a hurry!
the us will win, the stupid Chinese can’t even build a freaking refrigerator. and Arrendajo, shut up it is not a waist of money you do not understand science because you are a dumb redneck conservative who dropped out of school in 5th grade and is pumping gas for a living and you do not understand the need for human exploration. USA!
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Never. I’m all for space exploration, but there isn’t anything humans could do on Mars that robots couldn’t do just as well for less money and without risking lives. The Mars rovers accomplished as much science as any human landing would at a mere fraction of the cost and decades if not centuries earlier. This isn’t liberal v conservative, it’s the realization that resources are not infinite and recognition of benefit/cost ratios.
South Africa.
Hey no one would have believed that the Russians would do pretty much all space firsts sans the moon shot.
This post subtly argues against the US dominating much of anything.
Voted multinational effort.
But, I almost voted “other” - if there was a financial reason to do so (who knows, maybe they find unobtainium laying around on Mars, and anyone looking for an extreme off shore tax haven could certainly consider many space based locations) - corporations could decide to go. Maybe not for the silly reasons I postulated, but if profit became a serious reality, you would have a space race happening between various large multinational corporations