Mars Race Heats up Further

anzha writes "It seems what was once the province of the superpowers is no longer so. ESA and the Japanese attempted their own Mars orbiters (successfully and not, respectively). The Brits fired off Beagle 2 and are talking of going for Beagle 3. Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011. How long before we see the Japanese and Russians try again? Might India or China take a stab at it as well?"

Comments

Lessons learned vrs need to learn

[SpaceLifeForm]

I can see others trying, but also not.

Based upon the lessons learned from prior missions, others could be encouraged. But, based upon the numerous failures, just as easily discouraged. Then when you factor in the costs involved, you certainly can argue against it.

What Spirit and Opportunity discover will probably be the main factor.

Re:Ugh, not a good thing

[Tenfish]

Mars may not be a large planet, but it has roughly the same land area as Earth.

Re:Ugh, not a good thing

[Tenfish]

Oh, and another thing.

Don't get too attached to this planet, or Mars either. Someday, we're going to be building gigantic structures in space. We'll be using the energy equivalent of many many stars total output. If you think that we're going to leave a planet in one piece, you're mistaken.

The ultimate future of Earth and Mars, and all the other planets in our system, is that they will be complete dissassembled for raw materials.

How will the world end? In fire? In ice? More like in a bunch of tiny pieces that were smelted into raw metals.

Re:Ugh, not a good thing

[bluGill]

You obviously fail to realize just how large the earth is. 1/2 the size of the earth is still a lot of land. Come to think of it, 2/3s of the earth is covered by water, so if you restrict landers to only land, there is more room on Mars. (assuming we accept your numbers, I don't feel like checking them and they sound right).

Space junk is a problem in orbit because it is moving very fast. Space junk on Mars is not moving. Everybody will avoid the functioning rovers, because there is a lot of area to cover so it is best to cover something far away. You wouldn't make claims about the goegraphy of the earth based on only samples from your backyard, and you don't make claims about Mars from samples from one area, you try to cover them all.

Hopefully it doesn't turn into a collaboration

[follower_of_christ]

I would love to see the ESA, China, Japan, India, England, or whoever else provide the US with more of the same competition. I believe it will poke at the pride that the US public and motivate us to work harder and be more ethical. Without ethics/integrity a society stagnates (As we are seeing today). With competition like this the US public has a reason to rally and refine itself to attempt to be the best. WIthout this competition we stagnate.

I applaud the rest of the world for becoming competitors in the space rafe and giving the US a new determination.

Why not

[n.o.d.y.n.e]

Might India or China take a stab at it as well?

Maybe they can out-source the labour to the West!

Hope the Japanese rethink this

[ObviousGuy]

With the North Korean situation the Japan and indeed the entire Asian penninsula faces, it would probably be wise of them to forego a true space program for the timebeing. It's bad enough that North Korea is already nervous about every flinch of the peace negotiators, how much more willing would they be to simply shut down the talks if Japan decided to launch a inter-planetary missile not 500 miles away from Pyongyang?

Leave launches to the Indians and Russians for now. When North Korea finally comes around to join the rest of us in the modern, civilized world there will be plenty of time for space exploration.

Right....

[FroMan]

China: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
India: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
Japan: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
ESA: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
BFE: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
<random 3rd world country>: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!

US: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Never going to happen. It's only political showmanship.

Smart Alex Answer

[Anonymous Coward]

Might India or China take a stab at it as well?"

They're too busy to fool with this. They have jobs.

Wal-Mart

[rixstep]

We bought a water rocket kit from Wal-Mart. We're launching in April, hopefully on the first. Target: Io, moon of Jupiter. Finally anyone can enjoy the thrill of space exploration.

Canada's Mars Mission Site

[Leif_Bloomquist]

Odd that the article didn't link to this.

http://www.marsrocks.ca

Canadian Space Agency == Geeks?

[Jorkapp]

Slashdot:
Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011.

Website Link:
...the CSA is interested in receiving include an orbiter, a single lander, or a network of small landers.
Imagine that. A Beowolf cluster of Mars Landers. I wonder if they would run on linux?

Why Not the UNSA?

[DynaSoar]

I think all space programs should be collected under the United Nations as the United Nations Space Agency. The ESA serves as an example. Cooperation would accomplish more for more people than competition.

Oh sure, there'd be lots of collisions between agendas and between individuals. That's to be expected. But when it happens those responsible should me marked for replacement rather than placation. It's time we grew out of that sort of nonsense and space exploration is the perfect venue for that.

If the US and the USSR can come together in the Apollo-Soyuz project, surely today's more enlightened countries can set aside differences much less than mutually assured nuclear destruction.

The major problem would be the same problem NASA has: professional administrators and politicians. When engineers ran things we got to the moon. When managers ran things we got "My God, Thiokol, what do you want me to do, wait until April?" and no more Challenger.

Space exploration should be the right, responsibility and heritage of all humanity, not just those who can pry enough GNP away to put together their own team. This is not sports, this is science, and if done right, a chance to evolve socially as a planet.

Re:Why Not the UNSA?

[kippy]

Ths ISS is a scandal partly because it was built by a committee, not a group focused on one clear definable goal ("let's build a space station" doesn't count). The last thing humanity needs is to unite and therefore bind at the feet, the world's space agencies.

Almost everything great done in space was the result of competition. We need more of that, not less. If no one feels any pressure to work toward a goal harder, you will have engineers and administrators world-wide leaning on their shovels for decades to come as they we continue to be bound in low Earth orbit.

Canadian mars probe

[Angst Badger]

Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011.

They do know that liquid beer can't exist under Martian atmospheric pressures, don't they?

Re:Ugh, not a good thing

[RobertB-DC]

How will the world end? In fire? In ice? More like in a bunch of tiny pieces that were smelted into raw metals.

While I see your point, I hope it wouldn't come to that. I don't have a problem dismantling "dead" planets like Mercury and Mars, maybe even Venus, and certainly the asteroids.

But the Earth has so many unique features that you can't preserve outside an Earth-sized gravity well. You're not going to be able to recreate Yellowstone's hot springs and geysers on the surface of a Dyson Sphere, for example.

On the other hand, there's the .sig I see here on Slashdot: Earth First! We'll strip-mine the other planets later...