“In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams!”
From USA President Obama as quoted by Information Week:
“By the mid-2030′s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth,” said Obama. “A landing on Mars will follow,” he added.
Click on link below for full article:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/fabrics/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224400444#
From the History Channel: THE UNIVERSE “Space Colonization”
“Space colonization is no longer the fodder of science fiction, it is becoming a reality. Examine the efforts underway to establish a human colony on Mars, including how they plan to grow food, recycle wastewater and introduce greenhouse gases to revive the red planet and make it more habitable for humans. Cutting-edge computer graphics are used to bring the universe down to earth to show what life would be like on Mars, and to imagine what kind of life forms might evolve in alien atmospheres.”
http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
The Universe Season 2, Episode 13 is on “Space Colonization” but NOTE:
It is now listed as being on http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe/episodes as Season 5 – perhaps they are doing as an updated re-run? If you have Netflix and Google “The Universe Season 2 Episode 13 a direct link to the video will come up.
From NASA / JPL: MARS Exploration
“Since our first close-up picture of Mars in 1965, spacecraft voyages to the Red Planet have revealed a world strangely familiar, yet different enough to challenge our perceptions of what makes a planet work. Every time we feel close to understanding Mars, new discoveries send us straight back to the drawing board to revise existing theories.
You’d think Mars would be easier to understand. Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps and clouds in its atmosphere, seasonal weather patterns, volcanoes, canyons and other recognizable features. However, conditions on Mars vary wildly from what we know on our own planet.
Over the past three decades, spacecraft have shown us that Mars is rocky, cold, and sterile beneath its hazy, pink sky. We’ve discovered that today’s Martian wasteland hints at a formerly volatile world where volcanoes once raged, meteors plowed deep craters, and flash floods rushed over the land. And Mars continues to throw out new enticements with each landing or orbital pass made by our spacecraft.”
Link to sites:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ and http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_colonize_terraform.html
From MARS SOCIETY / MARS DIRECT:
Wikipedia excerpt: “Mars Direct is a proposal for a Manned mission to Mars. Proponents of the scheme have claimed it to be both cost-effective and that it can be conducted with current technology. It was originally detailed in a research paper by NASA engineers Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990, and later expanded upon in Zubrin’s 1996 book The Case for Mars. It now serves as a staple of Zubrin’s speaking engagements and general advocacy as head of the Mars Society, an organization devoted to the colonization of Mars.”
Website: http://www.marssociety.org/home/about/mars-direct
Video on You Tube:
