How Do You Spell That?

So once again as a species we shoot off a negligible mass of metal, plastic, and silicon off to visit the red planet once again. And as before, we'll have stunning pictures, amazing data, and will probably be left asking more questions than before.

And then we'll do this again in 2005. Just like we did in 2001.

Notice a pattern here?

When I was growing up, George Bush originally called for a "Battlestar Galactica" type mission to launch 100+ people at once to Mars for a grand total of two weeks. Then Robert Zubrin came back a few years later with his "live off the land" idea for a crew of five to spend almost two years on the surface. Today, we are no closer to going to Mars. NASA has no plans to visit Mars in the next decade. Currently, the number being thrown around is 2017, when Mars will be at it's closest to Earth in decades.

This means I will be 46 years old when the first steps are taken on Mars. My kids will be done with college, and I will most likely have a grandkid on the way.

Which of course brings me back to now.

I was watching Sports Night a few days ago and Issac was ranting on and on (like yours truly) about what NASA can do. "You give them a point and those guys will land it anywhere in the universe". Which IS what NASA can do. NASA CAN send men to the moon, they CAN send men to Mars, and they better damn well do it soon. Because if this keeps up, just like Issac in the episode, I won't be around to see it.