7th
Great post by Mike H here.. and if you’re into this stuff, I 100% recommend Kim Stanley Robinson’s series about colonizing Mars (I know, I know total nerd science-fiction but there’s some really great science-fact in there too). Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars
Surface of Mars (Via U or Arizona)
I just changed the background image of my blog to a picture of the surface of Mars. More at The Big Picture.
These are amazing images. Click through to see them all. Going into space would be so awesome.
We need to retire the Space Shuttle and, potentially, shut down ISS. We need to quickly finish work on the Shuttle replacement program, probably the Ares. And, I believe, we need to establish a base on the Moon.
Why a base on the Moon? Because it will provide excellent practice for Mars. Both because it will give astronauts and NASA experience in colonization and because it will prepare the public for a proper Mars mission. Nothing in the space program can possibly be more exciting than a permanent human presence on a celestial body. A Moon colony will galvanize the American public and the world. And then we can proceed to Mars.
This is our calling as human beings. This is our calling as Homo Sapiens. We must spread our genome among the stars to prevent an extinction event. We must explore. We must colonize. It is our destiny. Just as Europeans once conquered the Americas we — all humans this time — must conquer the stars.
