European Space Agency Plans to Team Up with Russia for the First Manned Mission to Mars

or maybe we should start working with them and have a cooperative mission to mars, USA, EURO, and Russia; spread the cost around

Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe NASA and the administration will finally refocus their goals. Shoot for the moon, Mars, asteroids, deep space exploration(not likely). Maybe this will light a fire under their a** and get something done and commit to it.

“Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” JFK

I feel so left out...can we join forces with someone too? China/USA Vs. Russia/Euro first one to mars gets a cookie, cake or pie. The winner gets to decided.

Let me add before getting destroyed. The China/USA bit was a JOKE! I don't hate China but I sure don't like them either.

The real issue is money. Either Russia or the US have the technology to go to Mars. ESA is not up to par with either but want to ride the coat tails with whoever goes. I think a team made up of the US and Russia would be the ideal. They have proved that working together almost anything can be done. But, again, where is the money?

@antaro...why don't you actually read up on what NASA is doing, everything you mentioned they are doing or working toward doing, stop spreading ignorance

a good analogy:

Think about being so much in debt that you are about to default. You don't have a car because you sent it to the junk yard because it's too old. And you are unemployed. Would you go on the most expensive trip ever in your life?

Kinda how the usa economy, nasa shuttle and employment picture is like.

I'm to the point where I don't even care who gets to Mars first, as long as somebody does. We can work out the mineral and property rights later.

Mars shouldn't belong to any country. It had ought to be colonized, but as an independent people.

i just want to go i dont care who for

Six years into a fifteen year mission build up for flags and footprints elon musk, bigilow and blue origin reveals a skunk works collaboration with a mars starter colony on the launch pad.

How the heck is a major catalyst the Mars 500 project? (6 dudes in a camper) You'd think, propulsion, radiation shielding, funding, would be much bigger factors....guess they have it all figured out.

yes. i think that mars shouldn't have the same countries from earth. i think it should be 100 percent independent. no borders. no high class. no racism. no money. and no religion.

That's a conundrum right there. How can you have no racism, if you are racist against religious people. "Hey you, you believe in God?, no space for you!"

Aldrons last hope,

no religion on mars isn't the same as no religious people allowed.... just no churches would be built. People can practice in their heads/homes.

just like "no money" , doesn't mean it would be against martian law to bring some dollars to mars, just in that instance there wouldn't be a martian dollar. and doubtful value to any earth dollars on mars itself.

cheers, eh

@Aldrons Last Hope
notice how i said no religion. i never said no religious people. as in no churches, mosques or temples. nothing that would cause conflict between different people. as ptv83 said it wouldn't be banned for good just wouldn't make it mainstream. think a little before you start calling someone racist. im one of the most non racist people to have ever existed.

@ptv83
when i say no money. i mean no "earth" currency. mars would have a totally different economy than earth. to make sure no greedy people take over. everything would be shared and resources would be given equally. and there would be laws of course. robots, aliens, intelligent apes and humans would all be treated as equal.

I would be proud to see a Russian/European mission to Mars succeed!

About time we head to Mars.

_______________________________________________________
My FYI Question :)

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-10/fyi-what-would-happen-if-every-element-periodic-table-came-contact-simultaneously

@JediMindset

Mars not being governed by the same nations here would happen only over time. However, any colonies established by any nation would govern those colonies much like when Europeans colonized the Americas. No matter how internal government would evolve on Mars, it should not be totally isolated from Earth.

This planet (home to all humans in this corner of the universe) is the center of our civilization that may yet eventually expand to the cosmos. Isolating worlds from Earth may prove to be to our disadvantage as a race without centralized control.

The trick is we have to start working together here before we can actually expand a governing influence to other worlds we set foot on.

As long as we are human, there will always be an order of hierarchy to our society. The lack of such would be uncivilized. For this social class will continue to be apart of our society as it always has been. People who get their hands on wealth will just stand on a higher pedestal than others. That's just the way it is.

As far as religion is concerned, the absence of controversial objects will not demolish controversy. The concept of freedom of expression is controversial in itself. Anyone who says or does whatever they like may inadvertently offend someone for whatever reason legitimate or not. Trying to eliminate controversy in that instance is fruitless because if people want something to fight about they'll find something and they'll fight about it (again just in our way and may never be changed).

Which brings us to racism: an aspect of our psychological reaction to something alien (in the truest since of the word) that our respective cultures do not understand. Cultures and groups are constantly growing more diverse and complex as time passes on and more people are brought into existence. Cultural difference is a key root to racism. It's not just the fact that people don't all look alike. It's that people don't do things the same way. The natural human response is frustration, ridicule, discrimination, and profiling. This won't change about us either. The only thing that has changed is that anyone construed as racist is made out by the masses to be enemies of humanity; this being based on the horrible aspects of history that have been motivated by racism.

People say we should fix the problems here on Earth and not bring them to space with us. I say that this will never happen. We will always have the same problems. How we deal with them as a race will speak volumes about our ability to endure for the long run. If we try to fix everything before we get out there we never will get out there because we never will solve all of our problems. We only need to find better ways to deal with our imperfections and continue to move forward.

@ALH: Suddenly religious people count as a race, such as African American or Chinese? Did not know that...

@pheonix1012
yes i understand that distancing ourselves from that which is different than us is imprinted in our dna along with a whole bunch of other crap like fearing what we don't understand.
"We only need to find better ways to deal with our imperfections and continue to move forward" is the best way to put it.

@Jedimindset, *sigh* not calling you racist, just saying that to discriminate against religious people would be racist. Like the other day when you compared Christians to Rats, think a little before you make statements like that because it can be construed as bigoted.

@Fallacy here is the U.N definition of discrimination
"Racism" and "racial discrimination" are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of their somatic differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnicity discrimination. Key words CULTURAL: religion has a lot to do with people’s culture world wide ETHNICITY: (ethnic cleansing as in Serbia SO yes discrimination against someone’s religion is racist. And if not racist just plain immoral. Ask any Irish Protestant, or Muslim in India.

@ptv83 well that’s fine I guess. I am interested to see who will be writing these Martian laws. Although I would go to Mars and start a revolution if anyone thinks they are going to restrict my free speech.

Sounds like people want Mars to be a communist type society. Interesting.

Also hate to bring this back to reality…but does everybody really think, all of these governments and private companies that are so heavily invested in the space race, will get to Mars and just forget about the trillions of Earth dollars they just invested, and just say “Hey everybody..it’s yours!” No they and their stock holders / citizens will be looking for return on investment. That’s the business world. I work for a publicly traded company and trust me, they don’t do anything without profit in mind.
No Mars will not be a utopia; it will be an extension of our society here on earth. Good or bad that’s a reality.

You comment was a huge generalization, you grouped every religion into one group and then called discrimination against that group (I use the term loosely) as racism. Doesn't work.

And the U.N. be damned, I don't know why they think they can go around altering the definition of a word. Doesn't work that way.

"Racism is the belief that there are inherent differences in people's traits and capacities that are entirely due to their race, however defined, and that, as a consequence, racial discrimination"

Racial discrimination
Cultural discrimination
Religious discrimination
Gender discrimination

They're all discrimination yes, and not a single one of them is logical, but that does not mean they are the same or should be generalized together. Without knowing the nature of the problem, there is very little hope of finding a solution.

I was replying to a generalized statement. U.N be dammed indeed.

ha fitey cent can be president and lady Ga GA can be
first lady on mars

if there is an other space race but with mars, the U.S has already won. the 123,000 MPH plasma engine will take astronauts to mars in 39 days so Russia can do there little 520 test. but we could be there and back 10 times before they even leave the atmosphere. take that Russia. ;)