Not to Boldly Go

This is disappointing news from Nasa. In posting that they are planning a bold new exploration plan of the Red Planet they posted their plans for another rover to Mars in 2020. A rover? We've done that. Three times. Curiosity is doing a bang up job, but at the end of the day we need boots on the ground. A manned mission that puts astronauts, geologists, atmosphericists, on the back of the God of War so that we can really dig into it and find out what is out there, or over there.

There was a great book came out some years back called The Case for Mars, in which the author, Robert Zubrin, laid out a great blue print for getting to and settling on Mars. NASA should adopt that.

Mars beckons . . .

Trepidation and fear hold us in our back.

With hoarfrost in his beard the first viking lept off his ship onto the green, green shores of Greenland, not knowing what monsters lurked in the hills. Without fear Columbus set foot on his small wooden ship and pushed off into the Atlantic to cross the wide deep waters, with no hope of aid or help. In hides and leathers, with no more than some steel and a long musket, the mountain men crossed the wide river to enter the rolling hinterlands of America.

For them, those iron willed travelers, what stood before them, the wilderness, strange weathers, natives that relished battle, packs of wolves in the scores, bears as large as wagons and all manner of wild creatures, plunging into the wilderness was an act of unbridled courage. The best our species has to offer.

So we should boldly go where truly no man has gone before. To Mars. The Red Goddess. The Lord of War.