Via Slashdot, here’s a paper at the Journal Of Cosmology (who need to hire a web designer, like, yesterday) that suggests such well-worn corporate PR strategies as sponsorship, “naming rights” and other licensing angles as a great way to finance a manned mission to Mars.
Sound familiar? So it should – Jason Stoddard did something very similar when he made a Mars mission into a reality TV challenge in his story-that-became-a-novel “Winning Mars” (free online versions are available; the book is in the production pipeline at Prime Books at the moment).
In a way, it’s a sad indictment of the post-modern nation state that the only viable funding methods for space exploration are corporate; a mars mission would be a terrible waste of taxes that could be used for more important matters, right?
- The predicted cost of going to Mars: ~$145 Billion.
- The cost of the Iraq war thus far: ~$739 Billion. [via MyElvesAreDifferent]
See also Terry Bisson’s Voyage to the Red Planet from 1990.
Ah, the true cost of the Iraq War is closer to three trillion, not $739 billion. Possibly more, depending on whether or not you count the health care costs of soldiers physical and psychological injuries, opportunity costs do to preoccupation, etc.
Wow, you folks are all too young:
“The Man Who Sold the Moon” R. Heinlein,1949
Thanks Rick, now I don’t have to comment.
John
The predicted cost of going to Mars: ~$145 Billion
The cost of the Iraq war thus far: ~$739 Billion
This is just so wrong I don’t know where to start. Our priorities are completely upside-down.
I agree. However, they have always been upside down and it isn’t going to change.
If we assume they’ll never change, then they definitely won’t. 😉
While, I agree. I don’t see much hope. It’s been this way for thousands of years. I would love to be wrong.
They work for us… or at least they’re supposed to. If we all made a point of reminding them of that more forcefully, who knows what might happen? 🙂