Mars Society & 1000planets Team Up

Anonymous Coward writes "According to 1000planets, they are teaming up with the MarsSociety to offer a lottery of sorts for rides into space and ultimately to the Red Planet. Money problems are over. (fyi: the Mars Direct plan which the MarsSociety aims for costs $10 billion spread out across several years for a sustained exploration/developement mission on Mars--a tiny fraction of the current NASA budget) I'm sure many of you have heard of the X-Prize. This is just another great way for human exploration of space to commence."

Comments

"Gurantee funding"?

[Bob_Robertson]

Quinto,

Consider how quickly the funding for Mir, the Apollo program, the "fleet" of space shuttles, dried up after initial investments.

The "public sector" has no gurantee of funding what so ever. Programs are picked up or dropped on the whim of a single election cycle.

Worse yet, that funding depends on coersion in the form of taxes. There is also the opportunity for vast quantities of corruption, the American space shuttle program is a perfect example of that in action.

If you want "guranteed funding", put the contract in writing. No government will give you such a contract.

Bob-