Prospects for Mars Rover Spirit Escape are looking Bleak

Attempts to free Spirit will now be hampered further since another drive wheel appears to have failed.  This addition problem which reduces the available traction already compromised by a previous wheel failure earlier in the mission, will make it even more difficult to extricate the rover from its sand trap. http://bit.ly/52Drm2

Norm Augustine introductory remarks on the Human Spaceflight Review final report

10 minute overview of the Augustine Commission final report which commenced the press conference today in Washington DC. The main thrust of the report is to introduce missions which will visit/land on objects such as Asteroids, NEOs, Moons of other planets, visit Lagrange points and/or circumnavigate a planet such as Mars.

These new missions will be lower cost and achievable within a shorter timeframe than the current objective to land on the Moon and Mars, which requires the development of complex landers and larger heavy launch vehicles. The committee has not excluded the landing of humans on Mars ultimately, but believes that smaller steps are required in order to ensure continued public interest and funding of human spaceflight in the future.

One way ticket to Mars, just a concept for a future Science Fiction novel or Science Fact, more debate and discussion on the controversial Mars suicide mission http://bit.ly/MZtw8

What rolled down the crater wall first, the boulder or the avalanche?  look to the right of the boulder and you will notice some lighter ground that suggests the boulder was their prior to the sand blasting http://j.mp/7wvIX

Microbe-ferrying Russian probe reportedly won't head for Mars orbit until 2011

Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe, which had been slated to head off this year on a sample-return mission to Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons, will not launch until at least 2011, according to the Russian Interfax news agency . [More]


http://bit.ly/3WocXL

The first human colonisation of a another planet or a one way suicide mission, neither makes sense

I'm not sure how this debate is going to get us to Mars sooner, what seems to be overlooked is the cost of sustaining life for an indefinite period on the Martian surface as opposed to conducting short sorties and bringing the crew back.

If the other one way plan is to maroon the crew on the Martian surface without the technology and resources to survive it will never get funded due to public and political outcry. 

So why muddy the Martian waters with proposed missions which are likely to take longer on a larger budget or never get approved politically? 

We already have a perfectly good plan to get us to Mars in the Constellation program, it just needs the funding that was promised to it, to make it happen.

Mars Society Robert Zubrin presents his shortcut to Mars before the Augustine Human Spaceflight Review Committee

Mars Society President Robert Zubrin delivers an enthusiastic presentation at the 5th August public meeting in Washington DC, making the case for a low cost human mission to land on Mars within 10 years. It is argued that much of the training for adapting humans to the Martian environment can be conducted for a fraction of the cost in the Arctic region.