Frustration with the Augustine Committee

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 develop a heavy lift vehicle such as the SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy, or the Ares 5, but, the program must be oriented specifically toward Mars — 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 will use aeroshells, parachutes, and on site refueling; thermal, pressure, and gravitational environments are entirely different between Mars and the Moon. Lunar equipment and procedures will not evolve into Mars missions.
Asteroid mining and Martian settlement will provide the engine humanity needs to sustain a permanently expanding frontier. Mars Direct is a low cost straightforward way to settle Mars. Now!
The Mars Society is an international organization committed to this moral imperative. Products with variations of the “Cowards Return to the Moon” theme can be purchased at cost from Factual Fiction’s online store.
While such a populist theme may seem blunt, rude, or whatever, over the last decade of involvement in space advocacy we’ve observed a remarkably consistent dichotomy between persons involved in the space community: old political timid bureaucrats predictably favor lunar exploration, with their excuse being “safety, proximity to earth”; bold young creative entrepreneurs OVERWHELMINGLY favor Mars Direct, with their rally cry being, “LET’S GO!”
This dichotomy is so consistent, obvious, and predictable a simple biological solution to change American space policy suggests itself: testosterone replacement therapy. No kidding. It is time to view lunar exploration with disdain. Heroes go to Mars. Cowards return to the moon!!!!

Welcome to the Mars Artists Community

Enough is enough: artists can make Mars exploration and settlement favorable to languishing in LEO or cowardly returning to the moon…simply by making the coolest, most cutting-edge, professional space imagery — ENTIRELY — Mars-centric.

The idea is to establish a model library copyrighted solely for creation of Mars imagery — but, otherwise open to use by any contributing artist or studio. Since 3D modeling is extremely labor intensive an artists’ cooperative centered upon developing Martian vehicles, habitats, and astronauts, will lower the cost of high-quality creative iterations by artists taking advantage of free Mars Only models. With a library of easily modified Mars Only models, through trial and error of creative processes, Mars Only productions will evolve to be of higher-quality, more pervasive, expressive, and cool!

This is in addition to the self-selection of artists who realize a Mars-oriented space program — NOW! — is more desirable than one languishing in LEO or returning to the moon. Not only will the most informed artists work on Mars-Only models — but, they will work together for a greater cause: the promotion of Mars exploration and settlement over the bureaucratic intertia of dream-crushing Lunar/LEO bullshit.
Eventually we will have our own website, blog, and online Mars-Only library, but, in the meantime checkout MarsSociety.org and send us a message if you are interested in hearing more or contributing: [email protected]
(By the way we call the above rover “Temerity None.” Tesla Experimental Motors Excursion Rover I___ T___ Yeti…or something like that.)