So we ask the question, "why does NASA not go to Mars?" Well I for one believe that NASA should not go to Mars - on its own.

During the Apollo era, a huge pile of American money was spent to get American astronauts onto the Moon. Since then, no human has been back, and to add insult to injury, there's people who are trying to get us to believe that it was all a hoax.

I believe that, as a citizen of Scotland, I have no right to lobby NASA to go anywhere, however I do not think it is fair that it is only the tax Dollars of US citizens that get used to fund space travel.

It would take a concerted effort to get anyone to Mars, so I believe that all the major industrialised nations should contribute to a larger presence in space, starting with a return to The Moon and the formation of a permanently manned base, before working up to the permanent manned colony on Mars. Then and only then could we consider this to be a planetary effort rather than the effort of one nation.

I don't want to knock NASA, in fact I am in deep admiration of their achievements over the years. I also know that any effort to broaden our space efforts would rely heavily on NASA's expertise. The point that I'm trying to get at is that I want to be able to say that my country contributed to the next evolution of the human species. NASA should not go it alone.

[edited as the spelling was awful!]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: liglats on 2003-01-12 16:25 ]</font>