[ExI] future fizzle

[spike]

> On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 8:54 AM, Stefano Vaj 
> <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> > We planned to put men on Mars in 1982, 30 years later we 
> have trouble 
> > even in resuscitating Apollo-era technology, but special effects of 
> > gigantic spaceships traveling across universes keep 
> improving, thank 
> > you.
> 
> We stopped planning for a manned Mars mission when we 
> realized we could accomplish a lot more for the same cost 
> with unmanned missions.
> They're not as sexy as manned missions, but they're a lot smarter.
> 
> -Dave

Ja, and they produce a lot more useful spinoff technologies.  I have been
suggesting this at a Mars study group for years: build an extensive human
habitat using robots on the surface, partially autonomous but mostly guided
by a single human in Mars synchronous orbit.  The human operators are
changed out every couple years.  After twenty years years, you have
sufficient infrastructure to support about thirty to fifty people, but we
need not send that many, for it requires only two human landers, both nubile
females with lots of frozen embryos.  They and their offspring are there to
stay.  That's the right way to do a Mars colony.  Takes a long time, but it
is still the right way.

spike