Europe Joins Race To Send Humans To Mars

hereisnowhy writes "CBC reports that the ESA hopes to send humans to Mars within three decades. They first hope to return a Martian soil sample by 2014. They stress the importance of determining whether Mars ever supported life before humans touch down on the surface, because "You can sterilize a robot. But you cannot do the same to an astronaut. Inevitably a human will introduce microbes to the planet ... and contaminate it."" Kame-sennin links to a Reuters article on the plans.

Comments

It will NEVER happen.

[nlinecomputers]

Call me a cynic but I'm going to be 40 this year. When I was a kid I figured that we'd be making our first attempt at Mars about now having setup our Moon base in the 80s.

Now I'm convinced that mankind will never reach Mars in my lifetime and unlikely to do so even when my grand children are old and dying. Assuming that they don't get nuked first.

Personally the way global politics is shaping up and American corporate greed is growing I doubt that we will have the money or the time to go to Mars as we will be busy cleaning up the mess from several small nuclear wars.

Re:I'm surprised...

[AKAImBatman]

You haven't been paying attention, have you? GWB's screwed the US economy so badly that the US$ has weakened to the point that it's no more valuable than some of those third world currencies.

I know you're trolling, but I just can't pass up a good fight.

GWB's administration lowered the rate of the dollar because they know what they're doing. Lowering the rate of the dollar makes US goods cheaper in foreign countries. If US goods are cheaper, then domestic companies can make more money via exports. If domestic companies are making more money, then they'll hire more employees. See how that works?

Be rest assured that the US Dollar will be at a crazy exchange rate again when strong buying power returns to the economy, and the US doesn't mind imports instead of exports.

Sincerest apologies to Kerry finatics who think the President of the United States of America is Hitler reincarnated.

Honestly, who cares if Mars gets Contaminated.....

[ThomasFlip]

Who cares if Mars gets contaminated. What could happen ? A group of aliens with hostile intentions will evolve and attack us in 500 million years ? I think its safe to say that a microbe won't spread around the entire planet and damage it indefinitely. The only reason I could think of not contaminating mars is that there might be possible conflicts with evidence of past life, but wouldn't it be relatively easy to tell the difference between 100 000 year old bacteria and the crap that came with the ship ?