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08 Nov 2011 10:52

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World: So, humans could be going to Mars soon. That would be a truly giant leap.

  • Over a period of 17 months, everything was strictly regimented. Now they are returning to a life where they must deal with family and professional problems.
  • Mars500 project director Boris Morukov • Talking about the crew of “astronauts” after a 520 day simulated mission to Mars. The mission intended to answer the question: ” can people stay healthy and sane during six months rocketing to the Red Planet?” The participants, from countries like Europe, Russia and China, are expected to have problems adjusting to the “noise and activity of ordinary life.” Still, it seemed to go much better than this experiment in 2000, which ended “in drunken disaster when two participants got into a fistfight and a third tried to forcibly kiss a female crew member.” We would be a little frazzled, too, after hundreds of days of isolation and terrible food. source

23 Mar 2011 14:36

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Politics: Hugo Chavez could have saved those Martians, dammit

  • I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet.
  • Venezuelan President Huge Chavez • Speaking on Tuesday, on the occasion of World Water Day. In making this theoretical argument about the mighty Martian State’s fall at the hands of capitalism and imperialism, Chavez at the very least couches this rather presumptive notion by saying it “would not be strange” to see such civilization, and that “maybe” that’s what happened. This is more humility, or at least hedging, than some who make unfalsifiable claims are willing to show. That said, it seems desperate to make a political point by any reference conceivable, and for a man whose real world behavior is at times bizarre and at times willfully ignorant (that being the most charitable way to describe his denial of Gaddafi’s force against citizens), this pseudo-scientific claim bolsters the idea of Chavez the eccentric. source

15 Nov 2010 20:43

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Tech: Mars: Where astronauts check in, but don’t check out

  • The main point is to get Mars exploration moving.
  • Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Washington State University astrobiologist • Suggesting that the first people to go to Mars shouldn’t come back to Earth, but rather stay there and help colonize the place. But, as NASA’s not convinced (“We want our people back,” a spokesperson said), Shulze-Makuch suspects they might need “an eccentric billionaire” for the project. Michael Bloomberg, what’re you up to? source

15 Apr 2010 19:56

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U.S.: See, everyone, Obama really cares about space exploration!

  • The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned spaceflight, to human exploration of space than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way and we can’t just keep on doing the same old things we’ve been doing and thinking that’s going to get us where we want to go.
  • President Barack Obama • Pointedly emphasizing that yes, he does have a space plan and yes, it is different from George W. Bush’s plan. It’s more long-term than the Bush’s reignited moon mission – one that sends us to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s. One major concession he made, however – the Orion crew capsule, which he planned to cancel, is coming back in a different form. source

16 Aug 2009 09:50

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U.S., World: NASA: We need more money to visit the moon and Mars

  • $18 billion amount the space program gets in its budget each year; its 10-year budget plan was cut significantly – by $30 billion – recently source

23 Jun 2009 10:58

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Tech, U.S.: Buzz Aldrin thinks we should go to Mars. Well, he did go to the moon.

  • By refocusing our space program on Mars for America’s future, we can restore the sense of wonder and adventure in space exploration that we knew in the summer of 1969. We won the moon race; now it’s time for us to live and work on Mars, first on its moons and then on its surface.
  • Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin (i.e. the second man to set foot on the moon) • On the possibility that the next step for the space program is heading to Mars. He thinks it would be a shot in the arm for NASA. Why the heck not? We’re sure Marvin would be a gracious host! • source

11 Jun 2009 10:33

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Tech: We’re all gonna die! Earth could hit another planet someday

  • The BBC sez that Earth’s orbit could be in danger of running into Mars’ or even Venus’ orbit in a few million years, creating a killer explosion, we’re sure, but also the death of lots and lots of cyborgs.source