Since the Mars Lander successfully touched down on alien soil a month ago, our minds have once again been stirred by an old daydream.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted 409-15 to increase funding for NASA, with an extra $1 billion allocated for a new program aimed at sending astronauts on long voyages. While President Bush opposed the allocation, he has long been an advocate of a manned Mars expedition, and John McCain recently announced his willingness to increase NASA funds for such a goal. Last November, NASA itself announced that its goal was to put a man on Mars by 2037.
All this optimistic chatter seems to have spread the general impression that taking a trip to Mars is no more difficult than sending a probe to Mars. Perhaps we've been lulled into a stupor by years of science fiction movies and television shows, which take the eventual colonization of the galaxy by humans for granted.
The fact is, a manned mission to Mars would be the single hardest thing humans - any humans - have ever attempted.