I Got Yer Infrastructure Here

5:06 pm EST November 22nd, 2008 | News | 12 Comments

President-elect Obama talked in his radio address about infrastructure investment to create jobs. In addition to public works may I suggest… MARS? Not only would a Mars mission help science-related jobs but we need blue collar work for it as well.

Probably a pipe dream but a boy can dream.

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12 Responses to “I Got Yer Infrastructure Here”

  1. Emily says:
    November 22, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    There’s no Earthly reason for people to go to Mars. I’m happy to support space exploration, but you get waaaaaay more exploration bang for your buck with non-maned (non-personed) missions.

  2. Oliver Willis says:
    November 22, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    Has man ever been there? No? There’s your reason.

  3. Duros62 says:
    November 22, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    Did you see the report about massive glaciers of water ice buried underground?

    It’s the plot of Total Recall!

  4. riffle says:
    November 22, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    When we’re flush with cash and our infrastructure (including electrity grid and energy sources that don’t rely on fossil fuels) are humming along, maybe we can start sending manned missions.

    I’m pretty tired of paying people to go into space to run experiments designed by primary school students. And, agreeing with Emily, robots can do a whole lot of the exploration of Mars if we want to go there in the next decade or so.

    But really, manned missions to other planets are way down my wish list right now. I think that the funds that go into building and running a Mars mission would create a fraction of the number of jobs the same amount could create in infrastructure and green energy–plus we’d get immediate benefits and fewer people will starve here in the USA.

    We’re in a serious financial crisis. We need to spend a lot of money to stimulate the economy, put people to work in great numbers, and fix up all the things that Bush let pass by. Let’s work on that.

  5. bryan says:
    November 22, 2008 at 11:13 pm

    Shorter Riffle (and I agree): sort stuff out on Earth before worrying about Mars.
    Duros, did you know that the original story for “Total Recall” (We can remember it for you wholesale) is only nine pages, and is still better than the film (which I do like, though).

  6. jr says:
    November 22, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    We should be the party of space exploration and they are the party of overthrowing secular governments in the Middle East and installing Iran-friendly replacements

  7. Jaim says:
    November 23, 2008 at 12:23 am

    Canned-human travel to Mars would be a colossal waste of resources, not to mention a reckless gamble on some people’s lives.

    Build bigger, better, and faster robots. That’s a project I could get behind.

  8. Parthenon says:
    November 23, 2008 at 2:07 am

    Is there a voluntary fund somewhere where NASA takes donations to make this happen? If there isn’t, there should be.

    a reckless gamble on some people’s lives.

    And yet, I would challenge you to find one astronaut who wouldn’t leap at the opportunity.

  9. Walker says:
    November 23, 2008 at 10:52 am

    There is no way I can think of this suggestion without seeing the Chapelle sketch. Does this make me a bad person?

  10. Mylegacy says:
    November 23, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    If we’re going to spend trillions on sending an expedition to see if there is intelligent life on Mars – why not instead try sending an expedition to see if there is intelligent life in Utah?

    Our guys could wear special sunglasses so all the “Red” in that state won’t blind them. Just a thought.

  11. Syco says:
    November 24, 2008 at 8:26 am

    I say we invest in chocolate favored nachos.
    We can call them chachos.

  12. ManDrake says:
    November 30, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    First thing to make that reality that Obama needs to do is dust off the X-33 project (aka Venture Star Project) and save it from the scrap heap of Republican incompetence. It was one of the earliest attacks by the radical right on Science. It promised to drop the cost to travel into space by a factor of 100. Instead Bush and his cronies decided it was better to ride in the way back machine and “advance” our space technology to the 1960′s level of achievement and call it ‘progress’. Which makes it possible for them to make the argument that going to space is an expensive and pointless exercise like you see them making here. They live for self-fulfilling prophecies that their incompetence always creates.

    Anyway, it’s not a pipe dream, like most of America’s greatness it’s been put on a shelf waiting for people with vision and ability to take back our government. Right now, you will probably see it in the Chinese or Indian space programs before you see it in ours until Obama does some serious head chopping of the anti-America GOP moles in the government. He’s shown a lack of intestinal fortitude to take on that challenge, so you’ll just have to wait a few years for America to become a completely third world nation then some of these people that take the future seriously will step up and deliver the dream to the world.