In todays Guardian... https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/12/nasa-texas-humans-prepare-mars If you get paywall, just click I will do it later.
We’re not going to Mars, it’s a nonsense. There are a host of downsides and not one single tangible benefit to sending humans there. Not only is there no atmosphere on Mars, there’s no electro magnetic field which would protect astronauts from solar flares - anyone setting foot on Mars would almost certainly die of radiation poisoning. That’s if they survived the three to four year journey, which they probably wouldn’t. This is a fund raising exercise by NASA, who understand that the prospect of manned space missions capture the public imagination. More interest in space exploration equals more money being made available for the real business of developing ever more sophisticated technologies, which will do the job without humans having to leave earth.
A Hohmann transfer between Earth and Mars takes around 259 days (between eight and nine months) but is only possible approximately every two years due to the different orbits around the Sun of Earth and Mars. I think the longest time spent so far by a human in space is 437 days in a single trip (there and back), so it's no where near long enough from a test perspective, to keep someone on Mars for 18 months to 2 years, while they wait for their shortest journey time to get back home. Humans explore and as man has always done, will push itself to the limits.
That’s 437 days on the international space station, in close orbit of the earth. That’s a lot different than spending years completely weightless, before having to adapt to Mars’ gravitational field. And then there’s the impact of g-forces on the human body in flight. Fighter aircraft technology has now reached the point where planes are being developed and tested, which are so fast and manoeuvrable, any pilot would be turned to jelly; so the next generation will be pilotless. Spacecraft trying to reach Mars in less than a year would face similar issues. The recent Cassini mission to Saturn was so successful, it beamed back so much data that all the processing power available in all the cosmology departments in all the world’s universities, are still going through it. The forthcoming JUICE mission to Jupiter is expected to provide exponentially more data (but processing power here on earth is increasing exponentially too). With all this information gathered by unmanned craft, there’s absolutely no benefit at all in sending manned craft into space; unless you buy into the fantasy that humans will someday colonise distant worlds.
Man never use to be able to fly, man never use to be able to go into space, most of what man can't do has been achieved in less than the last one hundred years - with technologies advancing at extraordianary rates now, I wouldn't put anything beyond our capabilities with the right preparation, which in part is why I thought we were going back to the moon, and creating ourselves stepping stones. The journey from Earth to Mars was never intended as one giant leap across, but a staged approach. I agree the technology is such, we don't need to send humans to Mars, but the same as there was no reason for man to climb Everest or trek across the poles, we are always looking for the next challenge and somewhere other than the moon, I can see men wanting to do that, even at the cost of their own lives, to see how far we can push this, and for future generations to learn from it, and exceed and succeed in the future on previous attempts.
Yup, in decades or centuries to come, humans may think like us and say, they use to say we couldn't get to Mars, now we look for the next impossible adventure. Humans have always sacrificed their lives for the next adventure of failed missions, if we don't try we can't evolve.
I also think, when this happens depends on medical advancements and life expectancy with each generation. So for example if the next generation can live to 150 yrs plus, and each generation after is living longer and longer, then it may just take another 2 or 3 generations.
Have you ever used a rail app, fooking hell, it's like something a dinosaur created....purchase ticket from App....ok so far....go to station to collect ticket...wtf?....enter card already used to pay in machine.....now enter the reference number you were given....like wtf is that all about!...waiting while machine prints tickets.....wait while machine prints receipt....any chance it can make me a coffee as well.
Go to Mars by train. This service is delayed due to signal failure at East Croydon, please listen out for further announcements.
They aren't Ticket Offices any more, if you ask about a ticket they will point you to aTicket Machine, ask about when train might arrive they will point you to the Arrivals Board which you have already looked at Elf and Safety and Trade Unions are doing a wonderful job of getting cheap airlines more and more passengers
I noted once I got into Gillingham, they had a couple of ticket offices, both looked busy, and young to middle age people, not oldies.
