NASA will pay $5000 for your best ideas on what you'd need to survive on Mars

[Helix]

For now, but all we'd need to do is figure out a way to get a shuttle into space from a runway instead of having to blast it up. That's the only reason we wouldn't be able to send people back.

yeah, it will most likely happen eventually. until then, it will be rough for the pioneers. they'll be like saltwater fish living in an enclosed bubble on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

 

[Henrin]

Ungodly amounts of money? We give NASA well below 1% of our national budget. You need to look towards the military if you want to stop ridiculous and unnecessary spending. Also, it's more than just being afraid of something happening to Earth. We will someday be getting our resources from space. We will colonize other planets and achieve things beyond what any of us today could imagine. Your selfishness is hindering the progress of humanity.

My selfishness can't possibly hold you back from following your dreams. If you want to live in Star Trek universe then like Picard would say, make it so.

 

[Anomalism]

My selfishness can't possibly hold you back from following your dreams.

No, but when droves of ignorant people want to attack NASA instead of the real sources of our economic strife it can certainly hinder the process.

 

[gdgyva]

NASA has no business spending one tax dollar to plan a 'humaned' trip to Mars.

THis has almost no practical use for humankind - it is just a waving the flag, ego boost.

If that is what Americans want - fine...then let them pay for it directly.

It is absolute nonsense that taxpayers who are having trouble making ends meet have to have their tax dollars going towards some Mars mission if they have zero interest in it.


Don't get me wrong, a mission to Mars would be extremely interesting and maybe I might fork over a dollar or two for it...but it needs to be funded 100% privately...not with taxpayer dollars.

It's unnecessary stuff like this that (in a small way) helps America go over $18 trillion into debt.

i agree that spending money frivolously is stupid

but....a lot of new tech and ideas came from nasa's ventures into space, and trips to the moon

man is by nature an adventurous soul.....i see no harm in sending men/women to mars

one can only hope that what we learn, and what we develop will help us in the future

just my two cents

 

[Anomalism]

i agree that spending money frivolously is stupid

but....a lot of new tech and ideas came from nasa's ventures into space, and trips to the moon

man is by nature an adventurous soul.....i see no harm in sending men/women to mars

one can only hope that what we learn, and what we develop will help us in the future

just my two cents

Every last bit of the technology we surround ourselves with owes its existence to science. Next time you pick up your cellphone just think about all of the lifetimes of effort that went into understanding the science that makes that possible. Nothing improves the quality of our lives more than the pursuit of science.

 

[gdgyva]

i agree that spending money frivolously is stupid

but....a lot of new tech and ideas came from nasa's ventures into space, and trips to the moon

man is by nature an adventurous soul.....i see no harm in sending men/women to mars

one can only hope that what we learn, and what we develop will help us in the future

just my two cents

one of the biggest problems the world will see over the next couple of generations is fresh water

our planet is covered with water, but most is unusable in its current state

instead of spending billions on green energy that isnt ready for prime time, taking a part of that and putting it into turning salt water into usable clean water would solve a lot of issues

i know some places are building desalination plants.....

hopefully that and things like that will be on the priority lists for nasa to come up with solutions

 

[longview]

one of the biggest problems the world will see over the next couple of generations is fresh water

our planet is covered with water, but most is unusable in its current state

instead of spending billions on green energy that isnt ready for prime time, taking a part of that and putting it into turning salt water into usable clean water would solve a lot of issues

i know some places are building desalination plants.....

hopefully that and things like that will be on the priority lists for nasa to come up with solutions

Water extraction, will be high on their list.
On Mars the rule of 3's would apply in spades.
3 minuets without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food.

 

[Nilly]

Fantastic, NASA going to the general uneducated and uninformed public on what is needed to survive on Mars. What could possibly go wrong?

(More tax payer dollars wasted on epic stupidity. What is next? Asking the general public on the best Celestial Navigation methods to avoid ending up in the Sun?)

It's like they are just trying to come up with ideas to waste money at this point.

Crowdsourcing has proven to be an incredibly efficient way to come up with niche out of the box ideas. There have been thousands of successful products on websites like kickstarter and gofundme. Three $5000 prizes is basically nothing.

NASA has no business spending one tax dollar to plan a 'humaned' trip to Mars.

This has almost no practical use for humankind - it is just a waving the flag, ego boost.

If that is what Americans want - fine...then let them pay for it directly.

It is absolute nonsense that taxpayers who are having trouble making ends meet have to have their tax dollars going towards some Mars mission if they have zero interest in it.

Don't get me wrong, a mission to Mars would be extremely interesting and maybe I might fork over a dollar or two for it...but it needs to be funded 100% privately...not with taxpayer dollars.

It's unnecessary stuff like this that (in a small way) helps America go over $18 trillion into debt.

Thankfully NASA are far less short term thinkers than you. They have their approved budget (which is tiny), and they make tough decisions on how to allocate that money. The cost of this trip will pay itself back to the American people many times over.

 

[Winchester]

NASA needs to just spend $7.86 and buy this book.

 

[azgreg]

NASA has to step up their game. how else will we get noticed by the Vulcans?

 

[OrphanSlug]

Crowdsourcing has proven to be an incredibly efficient way to come up with niche out of the box ideas. There have been thousands of successful products on websites like kickstarter and gofundme. Three $5000 prizes is basically nothing.

Sorry guys, I am simply not in on this one. I do not look at this as a sincere effort to crowd-source their way into options, I look at it as publicity enabling given the difficulty of budget considerations these days.

 

[Anomalism]

Sorry guys, I am simply not in on this one. I do not look at this as a sincere effort to crowd-source their way into options, I look at it as publicity enabling given the difficulty of budget considerations these days.

"Those damn scientists are just trying to get people interested."

 

[Deuce]

NASA has no business spending one tax dollar to plan a 'humaned' trip to Mars.

THis has almost no practical use for humankind - it is just a waving the flag, ego boost.

If that is what Americans want - fine...then let them pay for it directly.

It is absolute nonsense that taxpayers who are having trouble making ends meet have to have their tax dollars going towards some Mars mission if they have zero interest in it.


Don't get me wrong, a mission to Mars would be extremely interesting and maybe I might fork over a dollar or two for it...but it needs to be funded 100% privately...not with taxpayer dollars.

It's unnecessary stuff like this that (in a small way) helps America go over $18 trillion into debt.

On a sufficient timeline, the statistical probability of Earth's destruction approaches 100%.

No use for humankind, eh?

Sorry guys, I am simply not in on this one. I do not look at this as a sincere effort to crowd-source their way into options, I look at it as publicity enabling given the difficulty of budget considerations these days.

Trying to get people excited about, and thinking about, science and space travel? The nerve. Science doesn't help America!

 

[Deuce]

Water extraction, will be high on their list.
On Mars the rule of 3's would apply in spades.
3 minuets without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food.

Duh they just have to turn on the big underground reactor. Don't you ever listen to mutants?

 

[DA60]

NASA has to step up their game. how else will we get noticed by the Vulcans?

Well, Zefram Cochrane will not even be born until 2030...so we have time.

 

[DA60]

one of the biggest problems the world will see over the next couple of generations is fresh water

our planet is covered with water, but most is unusable in its current state

instead of spending billions on green energy that isnt ready for prime time, taking a part of that and putting it into turning salt water into usable clean water would solve a lot of issues

i know some places are building desalination plants.....

hopefully that and things like that will be on the priority lists for nasa to come up with solutions

NASA is about aeronautics and space (hence it's name - National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

I am quite sure there are other organizations better suited to desalination plants.

 

[Anomalism]

NASA is about aeronautics and space (hence it's name - National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

I am quite sure there are other organizations better suited to desalination plants.

Expanding our understanding of the universe helps us better understand things on Earth too.

 

[fmw]

Oxygen, water, food, heating and WiFi, none of which are available on Mars in sufficient quantity.

 

[Hicup]

Oxygen, water, food, heating and WiFi, none of which are available on Mars in sufficient quantity.

Well if they're not bring this nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) with them, then they'll have a big problem..

If I were a budding scientist, I think I would expend my energy into figuring out how to grow food with the elements we find in Martian soil. Replicating Martian soil is easy, finding plants the produce food that will grow in it is a bit more difficult. Bringing our own soil or fertilizer isn't practical, what is a better idea is locating and genetically modifying robust plants that would grow there. better yet, finding plants that eat CO2 and produce oxygen are a plus.


Tim-

 

[faithful_servant]

I don't believe that these trips have to be one way. They say it's one way because we won't have the infrastructure on Mars to blast a shuttle into space, but if we develop better Earth to orbit technology it would be possible to get back into space with just a runway.

BINGO!!! If we can get off of our planet, then we can get off of Mars. The issue is one of developing a technology that is portable enough to take with us. Right now, we aren't even close to that since right now, the US has no way of putting a man into space (we have to rely on the Russians for that). Our focus should be on developing near-Earth technology and then once we have that nailed down, using what we learned to help us get to AND FROM Mars.

 

[EnigmaO01]

BINGO!!! If we can get off of our planet, then we can get off of Mars. The issue is one of developing a technology that is portable enough to take with us. Right now, we aren't even close to that since right now, the US has no way of putting a man into space (we have to rely on the Russians for that). Our focus should be on developing near-Earth technology and then once we have that nailed down, using what we learned to help us get to AND FROM Mars.

Isn't that what the space station is all about?

 

[iangb]

NASA has no business spending one tax dollar to plan a 'humaned' trip to Mars.

THis has almost no practical use for humankind - it is just a waving the flag, ego boost.

If that is what Americans want - fine...then let them pay for it directly.

It is absolute nonsense that taxpayers who are having trouble making ends meet have to have their tax dollars going towards some Mars mission if they have zero interest in it.


Don't get me wrong, a mission to Mars would be extremely interesting and maybe I might fork over a dollar or two for it...but it needs to be funded 100% privately...not with taxpayer dollars.

It's unnecessary stuff like this that (in a small way) helps America go over $18 trillion into debt.

Every dollar spent by NASA has, to date, provided a $7 to $14 return to the US economy, based on technological spinoffs and licencing. AND we got to find out more about the universe.

Factsheet.

"Unnecessary". Pfft.

 

[faithful_servant]

Isn't that what the space station is all about?

No, it's a research station and little else. What we need is the development of a orbital station that is not only able to provide for research but also resource development. Our current focus shouldn't be on Mars, it should be on near Earth asteroids. Learn how to wrangle them into stable orbits where they can be utilized, learn how to alter their course, so that if we do detect a "dinosaur killer", we can prevent it from turning into a "mankind killer". Mars buys us NOTHING that we need today or for the foreseeable future. Think about dumb it would be to pour tens of BILLIONS of dollars into getting to Mars, only to get wiped out by an asteroid that we could have stopped from hitting Earth had we put that money into asteroid wrangling instead.

 

[faithful_servant]

Every dollar spent by NASA has, to date, provided a $7 to $14 return to the US economy, based on technological spinoffs and licencing. AND we got to find out more about the universe.

Factsheet.

"Unnecessary". Pfft.

That makes the false assumption that none of those developments would have come about without NASA. Without NASA, most if not all of them would still come about and their development would have paid for by private entities, not public ones. Since we would have ended with most of the things that NASA has developed, then the money spent was wasted, since it would have ended getting developed any way. Your "fact sheet" is one of the grossest examples I've ever seen. Giving NASA credit for highway grooving is pathetic. The winglets, were a BOEING innovation that NASA and the USAF bought and would have been developed without either NASA or the USAF. I could tear apart just about every item on your "fact sheet" in the same way...

 

[Kobie]

A breathable atmosphere, food and water.