{"id":183,"date":"2009-08-08T17:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-08T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/2009\/08\/08\/frustration-with-the-augustine-committee\/"},"modified":"2013-06-29T15:37:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T19:37:46","slug":"frustration-with-the-augustine-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/2009\/08\/08\/frustration-with-the-augustine-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustration with the Augustine Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_WmkrvspHR7g\/Sn2xScMrcNI\/AAAAAAAAAWU\/fzeFzJbYVs4\/s400\/info_grays_transBkgrd.png\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/offices\/hsf\/home\/index.html\"><span><span>The Augustine Committee<\/span><\/span><\/a><span> seems to be embracing heavy lift but oriented toward a space program of lunar missions, with Mars seen as an eventual objective in the indeterminate future. This is a serious mistake. If anyone reading this blog ever wants Mars to be explored, much less settled, in their lifetime, America must not only develop a heavy lift vehicle such as the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacex.com\/\"><span><span>Space X<\/span><\/span><\/a><span> Falcon 9, or the Ares 5, but, the program must be oriented specifically toward Mars &#8212; not the moon. The moon is a siren call. Mars is an entirely different environment capable of supporting human civilization en mass. With a 24 hour day, vast quantities of water, and all the essential elements found on Earth, Mars offers humanity a permanent second home. Martian exploration would use aeroshells, parachutes, and on site refueling; the thermal, pressure, and gravitational environments are entirely different between Mars and the Moon. Lunar equipment and procedures will not evolve into Mars missions.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><span>Asteroid mining and Martian settlement will provide the engine humanity needs to sustain a permanently expanding frontier. <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mars_Direct\"><span><span>Mars Direct<\/span><\/span><\/a><span> is a low cost straightforward way to settle Mars. Now!<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>The <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marssociety.org\/\"><span><span>Mars Society<\/span><\/span><\/a><span> is an international organization committed to this moral imperative. Products with variations of the &#8220;Cowards Return to the Moon&#8221; theme can be purchased at cost from <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/factualfiction\"><span><span>Factual Fiction&#8217;s online store<\/span><\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><span>While such a populist theme may seem blunt, rude, or whatever, over the last decade of involvement in space advocacy we&#8217;ve observed a remarkably consistent dichotomy between persons involved in the space community: old political timid bureaucrat predictably favor lunar exploration, with their excuse being &#8220;safety, proximity to earth&#8221;; bold young creative entrepreneurs OVERWHELMINGLY favor Mars Direct, with their rally cry being, &#8220;LET&#8217;S GO!&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><span>This dichotomy is so consistent, obvious, and predictable a simple biological solution could change American space policy: testosterone replacement therapy. No kidding. It is time to view lunar exploration with disdain. Cowards return to the moon!!!!<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Augustine Committee seems to be embracing heavy lift but oriented toward a space program of lunar missions, with Mars seen as an eventual objective in the indeterminate future. This is a serious mistake. If anyone reading this blog ever wants Mars to be explored, much less settled, in their lifetime, America must not only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mars-artists-community","category-why-we-must-settle-mars"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":964,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/factualfiction.com\/lighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}