Open the pod-bay door, Hal!

Seriously, though: Lunar Electric Rover

See also: Earth Surface Electrics

What, ever? You'd be a brave man to bet against human ingenuity; many others have done so in the past & failed. My personal favourite is Lord Kelvin (yes, that Kelvin): "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." 

Smile... 

Andrew Shortt

Ontario, Canada

Electric Rockets for Deep-Space Exploration

One less bleak prospect for space travel mentioned by Prof. Parker is the biomedical side of the radiation problem. “Natural healing processes in the cell may be able to handle radiation doses that accumulate over an extended period, and some people’s bodies may be better at it than others’. If so, the present estimates of the cancer incidence, all based on short, intense bursts of radiation, may overestimate the danger” (Sci. Am., Mar. 2006, p. 47). It occurs to me that, in the distant future, we might have such easy and sure cures for all types of cancer, and for other radiation injuries, that the problem would be dissolved.

Because of the cosmic-ray obstacle especially, discussed in Eugene Parker’s article, I don’t think man will travel personally to Mars or into deep space.

What, ever? You'd be a brave man to bet against human ingenuity; many others have done so in the past & failed. My personal favourite is Lord Kelvin (yes, that Kelvin): "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."

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Great thread Stephen.

I dearly hope some entity (preferably private enterprise) manages to do a manned Mars mission in my lifetime. What a fascinating experience it would be following such an adventure. Here's a link you might enjoy:

Mars Society.

I would also love to see another manned Moon mission, but I suspect the current economic crisis will be putting that back by up to a decade.

Managing Space Radiation Risk in the New Era of Space Exploration Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (2008)

Magnetic Shielding Research

Because of the cosmic-ray obstacle especially, discussed in Eugene Parker’s article, I don’t think man will travel personally to Mars or into deep space. It is a wee bit more likely that we will have artificial descendants able to do that sort of travel, such as the descendants in AI. Of course research for better shielding materials is something useful on earth and its satellites anyway.

The wonderful thing is that there are plenty of science- and technology-steps of the mind by which humans will continue to travel unlimited roads in space exploration (but not in person) and right here.

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“No event in contemporary history was as thrilling, here on earth, as three moments of the mission’s climax: the moment when, superimposed over the image of a garishly colored imitation-module standing motionless on the television screen, there flashed the words: “Lunar module has landed”—the moment when the faint, gray shape of the actual module came shivering from the moon to the screen—and the moment when the shining white blob which was Neil Armstrong took his immortal first step. . . . ‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’. So it was.” —Ayn Rand (Sept. 1969)

“Kennedy Shoots for the Moon: Progress through Opportunity” Hermes (Summer 2008)