A Mars Odyssey

In a time in history where space conquest is at its peak, the United States Congress is firmly clamping down on the so-called menace of human life on Mars, according to Michael Huang’s December 2, 2007 article, “http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1012/1”. The Mars Society, along with many other space enthusiasts, have been fighting this act by Congress for awhile.

The House of Representatives HR 3093, which involves NASA’s funding for 2008, has banned the study by the United States of the entire planet of Mars:

Provided, That none of the funds under this heading shall be used for any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars.

According to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), sending humans to Mars is an extravagance, but the ban so far has not made it into a law yet. And even if it does, professionals in the space field says there are other ways for NASA to “continue its human spaceflight research and development without technically breaking the law…”. The ban as it is written by Congress says that even though a U.S. spacecraft with astronauts inside would be breaking the law if it was inside the Martian atmosphere, yet if it was orbiting the red planet nothing would be the matter.

Maybe the force is to further interest in the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos. Or will that be a ban also, as they are associated with Mars? Either way, the terminology will be picked to death by those who persevere in their space efforts, finding their way around the ban to do what they want to do. Yet earlier, the Mars faces had an entirely different support from both NASA and Congress:

NASA wishes to make it very clear that the objectives for the Mars Global Surveyor mission that have been approved as part of its authorization by the US Congress are to “globally” characterize the surface and atmospheric properties of the planet Mars.

I guess I personally wonder why Congress has suddenly decided to ban humans on Mars, especially when individuals such as Richard Hoagland have been seriously criticized for his views that there are a number of conspiracies existing that involve NASA and the US Government to keep them secret. In the McDaniel Report, it states that NASA has suppressed the evidence for this conspiracy regarding evidence of extraterrestrial life in the solar system. The report stated that this information “was to be withheld from the public because such information would destabilise society.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Mission Objectives, Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.