Mars

Ratings:Top:Astronomy:Favorite Objects:Mars

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Mars

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Mars
First vote for Mars in the 21st Century ^_~!

- S.P.M.

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars
Another vote for Mars - Direct, of course ^_~!

- S.P.M.

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Mars
A vote in honor of Tito ^_^!...

But here's hoping that after him the price of a ticket drops a *little* ^_^; !

^_~,
S.P.M.

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Mars

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Mars
And here's a vote in honor of Goldin's "20 year statement". Let's hope his talk will translate into action and that it won't take 20 years ^_~!

- S.P.M.

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars
I was excited to be able to view the 2001 apparition. It is pretty low in the sky here (Ohio) but still reveals some detail, including the southern ice cap and dark surface features. Frankly, I find its redness to be overstated. Maybe it is the latitude, but it is less red than Antares.
An orange filter helps alot. I usually use a 12.5mm U. ortho despite its mere 97X mag. in my scope. Adding a Barlow often pushes the magnification beyond the limits afforded by seeing conditions.

I enjoy looking because I know it is as close to Mars as anyone will get for a long, long time. Why? Because going to the moon cost in excess of 20 BILLION 1970 dollars! If it was that had to put men on the moon as part of a ten day trip, then going to Mars involves unbelieveably difficult engineering problems. It is not that it is impossible, but rather it is simply not worth going. Really, why go? Robots can explore Mars for a tiny fraction of the cost and provide more thorough exploration (since they can remain there permenantly). Frankly, instead of trying to escape to Mars, we ought to be putting that effort into curing problems here. The manned space program has essentially sucked the life's blood out of substantial exploration. A recent example is the cancellation of the Pluto Express because of cost over-runs inspite of the fact that at $500 million it costs about the same as ONE S.T.S. launch. One last thing, "Mars Direct" is fatally flawed and unbelievably dangerous. It depends on a risky surface rendezvous in order to obtain the fuel necessary to return to earth. What is the landing must be aborted? Well, food for thought.

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars

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Mars
Food for thought indeed! I'll try to come up with a reply as thoughtful as you initial post a little later (Even though this is more than 6 months later! ^_^;) but in the meantime...

1st Martian vote for 2002! ^_~

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Mars
A planet that has brought out more speculations of other beings living in space and invading us. They are always called martians from mars. Mars though is a cool planet.

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Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=194336

Mars

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