RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Mars Rover Landing

["Ross, Matthew" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I'm not sure what you mean by the last sentence.  The rational 
> choice given our horrifically bad record at bringing people in and 
> out of orbit is not to cower in fear, but rather to double or 
> quadruple the size of the un-manned programs.  Given sufficient 
> funding, we could learn to do amazing things in space pretty 
> quickly.  Once we choose a meat in space program, we deliberately 
> forego knowledge we could have had more quickly otherwise.

Ignoring USSR's actions early in the space-race, the death toll has been relatively low. We've had two major shuttle accidents, and a handfull of early failures. IIRC, 32 have died in American missions. Hundreds have been to space and back safely. It's a dangerous job, but its safer than others. We should increase our un-manned programs, but we should not abandon the manned programs as we've done. We're decades away from colonizing other rocks out there, but we're not making much effort to get there. With world population continuing to grow, it's not a field we should allow ourselves to fall behind in over the deaths of people who would have wanted the space program to continue and expand. 

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