Mars probe 'was doomed' say MPs

**ShadesWolf** · 06-13-2005, 20:48

In the end you just have to accept that almost every single problem this country faces is in some small way linked back to the Tories.

Erm would that we the typical left wing teacher

Yes the tory might have put a bullet through the entire scheme but nuclear power was the answer they came up with.

Under this government, and I dont want to turn this in 'Yes we all know I hate Bliar' we will have nothing. Most of the nuclear power stations will be shut leaving a big whole in the power we require.

**The_Doctor** · 06-13-2005, 20:51

Yeah we need some Liverpool's, New London's and the like...

It needs to be in Latin so it sounds cool.

Who stopped Britains space program in favour of Concorde?

Britain did launch a rocket from Australia.

**ShadesWolf** · 06-13-2005, 20:57

You Sir have offended me.

In space there is loads of great stuff, like asteroids full of minerals, solar power, aliens, living space etc.

We have vast areas of the oceans unexplored, it is an ongoing source of power. Why not understand this more than wasting resources on flying to the stars.

currently many countrys do space exploration, why cant we be different.
Once we understand our own planet then we can sell this technology and invest in the space race. We are a clever country yet we could not compete with the likes of USA/ China etc., However, the Oceans could help us

Why not underwater cities etc......

**ShadesWolf** · 06-13-2005, 21:04

There's a reason for that...its called getting the green vote and winning elections. Doing the right thing about Nuclear power can go and rot as far as politicians are concerned, as long as they get the vote they're happy and to be honest we are still living in the aftershadow of the anti-nuclear years. Until the populace at large begins to realise that Nuclear is the one hope we can achieve in the time constraints no Politician is ever going to say, "Hey vote for me, I'll build a Nuclear Power station two miles away!"

It isnt just that, you also have to investigate, as a comparison with output from both sources, I seem to remember reading that one nuclear power station is equal to millions of wind turbines output.

So which is greener ? we seem to go from government to government doing little about the growing countries needs for electricity.

yet we can talk about putting trackers in cars to charge for what journey you did, or forcing the population to have an ID card and have to pay £100 for the pleasure.

But we have a problem with passing legisaltion that would force all new houses to have some solar panels built into them, yes this would not cure the problem but any little helps, they could help towards heating water etc....

**The_Doctor** · 06-13-2005, 21:52

Why not underwater cities etc......

Jellyfish and other underwater creatures.

How about an underwater city on another planet.

But we have a problem with passing legisaltion that would force all new houses to have some solar panels built into them, yes this would not cure the problem but any little helps, they could help towards heating water etc....

I like that idea. I had that idea a while ago.

Also putting all roads underground.
Having magnetically driven trains in a tube.
Fusion power.
Replacing the working class with robots and the upper class with manakins (who would notice).

**Papewaio** · 06-13-2005, 23:36

Looks like history repeating itself.

Christopher Columbus certainly found it hard to find money for exploration.

As to the seas they are heavily exploited as it is. Alot of zones are overfished and some economies are so dependent on fishing they cannot survive as the catches diminish.

Also isn't it rather cowardly to give up the moment something goes wrong? Most Mars probes don't get to Mars, at least the British ones don't crash because of metric to imperial conversion errors. Going on in the face of adversity is what makes a champion. Is this the New Britain? Lets give up now and let someone else do it?

Why not exhange the CAP for an EU space program...

**TonkaToys** · 06-14-2005, 08:59

Originally Posted by Papewaio

Looks like history repeating itself.

Christopher Columbus certainly found it hard to find money for exploration.

As to the seas they are heavily exploited as it is. Alot of zones are overfished and some economies are so dependent on fishing they cannot survive as the catches diminish.

Also isn't it rather cowardly to give up the moment something goes wrong? Most Mars probes don't get to Mars, at least the British ones don't crash because of metric to imperial conversion errors. Going on in the face of adversity is what makes a champion. Is this the New Britain? Lets give up now and let someone else do it?

Why not exhange the CAP for an EU space program...

Here here.

What a sad state of affairs when a colonial has to teach the motherland how to behave.

**zelda12** · 06-14-2005, 11:58

Originally Posted by Papewaio

Why not exhange the CAP for an EU space program...

There is one my Uncles, Dr Southwood quite high in structure I believe. They are the people who coughed up most of the funding for the Beagle project.

Article from early 2002 explaining the ESA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/2018619.stm

**Viking** · 06-14-2005, 12:31

Originally Posted by ShadesWolf

We have vast areas of the oceans unexplored, it is an ongoing source of power. Why not understand this more than wasting resources on flying to the stars.

It`s not wasting resources. Think what we might find out there; aliens for example

(seriously, they might exist).

Also there`s alot of undiscovered resources on asteroids (as pointed out above) and think of all the money there`s to earn thanks to tourism.

Space is the future!

**bmolsson** · 06-14-2005, 12:56

Originally Posted by Viking

Think what we might find out there; aliens for example

(seriously, they might exist).

That is the problem. The American politicians see a Mexican illegal in every asteroid.........

**zelda12** · 06-14-2005, 13:18

There's also self preservation involved. Humanity is already on the knife edge of the evolutionary chopping block. From what I can tell we have 3 definite problems that will occur sooner or later.

1) The Polar Ice Caps melting-this is very bad and its already started happening. What’s even scarier is that once the North Pole starts melting it will unlock a LOT of frozen methane, something like a trillion tonnes of the stuff or something similarly insane. Once that melts we are seriously screwed.

2) An Ice age, we are already in one just at one of its low points, it could snap back at any moment and given are reckless approach to the environment its getting more and more likely.

3) Yellowstone Park...not a nice thing, really, really bad thing in fact. Nuclear winter bad.

Now these things here wouldn't kill all of us, but casualty rates for any of them would rise into the billions, possibly as much as 75% of the human population would die as farmlands either become ocean, ice sheet or the huge dust clouds from the Volcano block out the sun and make growing things virtually impossible, we would all quite literally starve to death. And then we would likely regress a hundred years or so, possibly more.

Then there’s the big killer, Space. Space is not very nice, its frankly evil. Asteroids can wipe out almost all life in an instant and chance are we wouldn't even see it coming.

The only way the Human species is going to survive for certain is to spread our seed across the entire Galaxy. It may take time but we need to start now, we need to be pouring money into space travel. Not wasting it on Guns.

**The_Doctor** · 06-14-2005, 13:33

The only way the Human species is going to survive for certain is to spread our seed across the entire Galaxy. It may take time but we need to start now, we need to be pouring money into space travel. Not wasting it on Guns.

I agree with you 100%.

Think what we might find out there; aliens for example (seriously, they might exist).

They do exist, I cannot imagine a universe where Earth is the only planet with life. There billions of stars and planets in is galaxy, and there is millions of other galaxies with billions of stars and planets. For not to be any other life is mad.

**zelda12** · 06-13-2005, 20:52

There's a reason for that...its called getting the green vote and winning elections. Doing the right thing about Nuclear power can go and rot as far as politicians are concerned, as long as they get the vote they're happy and to be honest we are still living in the aftershadow of the anti-nuclear years. Until the populace at large begins to realise that Nuclear is the one hope we can achieve in the time constraints no Politician is ever going to say, "Hey vote for me, I'll build a Nuclear Power station two miles away!"