Post #13by Dollan » 25.03.2006, 18:52
Well, Frankly, despite what the current administration says, and despite what a lot of people think, Bush's announcement was *not* even remotely similar to Kennedy's annoucement about going to the Moon. Indeed, the political climate now is so totally different, that if Kennedy today were to make his announcement about going to the Moon, I doubt that it would get much past the discussion phase. We're in no hurry to go to Mars, or even back to the Moon for that matter. Competition to do so is really pretty much gone; in short, we've been there, done that, if China or India want to go, more power to them!
Back to the MRO, though, it should be noted that the images that will be returned won't simply be a square only a few inches across. There *will* be accompanying context images, from the other orbiters and the MRO itself. It isn't limited to images of that resolution. And those absurdly high resolution pics will have tons of usage; we'll be doing more useful geological exploration of Mars with those images than we ever have before. Sure, we won't be able to root around and take direct chemical readings of the rocks, but pictures *can be* worth a thousand words... and I don't think the MRO cameras are limited to visual wavelengths (though I could be wrong on that one).
Also, while manned landings might be a prospect for a few decades down the road, other unmanned landers will certainly be in the pipeline, and finding a safe place for them to land will be every much as important as finding one for a manned crew.
...John...
"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe..."
--Carl Sagan
. (there's a link to one on that page too).
