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The Case for Mars is a great read... and now much (all?) of it can be downloaded for free from here:

http://www.nw.net/mars/

Also, check out the Mars society.

Make no mistake, it does read like a PR stunt, but its not NASA trying to spin to us. This "survey" is in large part an effort by The Planetary Society to justify their goals and priorities, in the near future to NASA and a highly volatile U.S. congress.

Notice, no manned missions? Do you think ordinary people care about them? In large part, having live people on the scene is something that most ordinary folk can relate to more than having robots crawling around or some deep space probe whizzing by. Its also, tremendously greater expense, and there's some debate within the scientific community over the relative value of manned vs unmanned flight, however, the Planetary Society has pretty much always come out dead-set against manned exploration- its just not their priority or interest.I find it curious that while many individual members/supporters of PS (like their founder, Sagan himself) acknowledge an interest in discovering habitats and environments suitable for future human settlement, they've been very loath to begin acting on that today. I suspect that results of the survey are likely to aid PS in representing their agendas to NASA as "what the people really want".

So... NASA wins, PS wins, Zubrin loses, everyone else goes home happy.

Note, I personally appreciate the agendas that both the rabid "humans in space!" and "robots in space!" camps further. Its important to keep them both in perspective, since they each have value.

Are mars society a proper respected society? no doubt they probably are, and I'm the only one who's never heard of them. right?
Actually I have come across their website before, but that was through a link from this guy's website, so you know how seriously I would take *that* ;-)

Okay, I've been a huge fan of space for years. I've got a plastic space shuttle that was one of my more cherished toys when I was 3 (22 years ago). I've read many books about the Apollo landings, seen several movies, and generally dug the whole experience. But the fact of the matter is, with a few notable exceptions (Mars Pathfinder) NASA has been totally boring.

We're not exploring, we're taking our space truck up into outer space and performing half-assed experiements. What's the current big project? Build a space station! How half-assed is that? Damnit, all we're doing is trucking and construction. Do you see people lining up to watch truckers and construction workers on earth? What makes you think it would be different in space?

If NASA wants to capture America's atention again then F'N *DO* something. Explore mars! Look for new life! Send people! Probes are neat, but they just don't have the same impact as "One small step for a man".

Check out The Mars Society for more information. Better yet, read A case for Mars by Robert Zubrin to see how it could be done for 1/10th of what those bean-counters told Bush.

Join the Mars Society. Philip Dembo, the chairman, is conducting a drive to mobilize support. Make sure this project isn't canned like some others; governments can be fickle, and the funding might not be there tomorrow (just ask the folks at the supercollider). And when you leave, make sure you stop at the giftshop and buy something -- 5% of proceeds go towards helping conquer Mars.

One of the most critical questions that we should be asking ourselves is this: Once we get there, is it a good idea to immediately start terraforming the red planet?

One of the most interesting things about Mars is that understanding how Mars formed and its weather systems will help us to understand how things work here on Earth, through what Ames and the Mars Society crew like to call "comparative planetology." However, if humans dump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the planet gets hotter, that changes the weather patterns, so Mars would be less useful for understanding Earth.

And, of course, there is the ever-present debate about life on Mars. If the atmosphere gets thicker and the planet gets warmer, Earth-born fungi and bacteria will flourish, "contaminating" the planet and making it very difficult to conclusively prove (or disprove) whether there is or was life on Mars.

Whether or not Hawking's predictions of climatic upheavle is correct or not, the Earth will eventually cease to be habitable by humans. That may happen in a few hundred years, as predicted by Hawking, or in a few hundred million when the sun overwelms the ocean's ability to regulate the Earth's temperature. Its going to happen.

In the mean time, I expect that people will be moving off into space. In a hundred years or so, access to orbit and beyond should be common enough that anyone can manage it, and once this is possible, the moon, Mars, and the Asteroids are just down the street. I probably won't be here to see it. My kids may not be. But my grandkids probably will, and their kids almost certainly will.

Why should we want to go live somewhere else? Why not stay here on Earth and fix up the mess that we've made of things?

One reason: its smart not to keep all your eggs in one basket.

Some references:

• The Moon Society
• The Mars Society
• Permanent: Project to Employ Resources of the Moon and Asteroids Near Earth in the Near Term
• Space ASAP
• OrbitalHabitat