Why are we not exploring further?

Question

Why are we not sending a human mission to Mars?


Also, why have we not sent an astronaut to live on the Moon? There are large hydrogen deposits, which are most likely frozen water on the moon. So an adequate supply of water is not the problem.

I'm only a high school freshmen, therefore I'm not as knowledgeable as someone on Yahoo Answers is, at least I'm hoping. Am I missing something obvious, prohibiting us from exploring further in the Solar System?

Edit : For those of you that are saying that water deposits are not on the moon. Yes, it is, in fact, believed that frozen deposits of water have been trapped in the Moons craters from comet impacts over billions of years.

Answer 1

Its basically a matter of money.

NASA (and other space agencies) rely largely on government funding to operate. And even though NASA's budget is just a small fraction of the money spent on war, it still sounds like lots of money to the people making the decisions. And while some ordinary citizens support space exploration, many more are adamant that those dollars be spent on 'worthwhile' things like weapons and military funding and such. You've probably seen questions here in YA asking why we don't spend those dollars on schools and feeding the hungry here on Earth.
Space exploration doesn't have immediate, visible rewards to people - its not "I want results now", its an issue of faith (and these days there isn't a lot of faith in the homes of average people).

Moon bases to permanently house astronauts are expensive to build (a lot more than building a house).
And while we have most of the technology now, it took time (and lots of money) to experiment and develop the things we will need:
- good, inexpensive, efficient, reliable space transportation
- lightweight building materials, or techniques to make those materials from raw materials found on the moon
- 100% reliable technology (computers, etc.) to maintain the environment humans would need to survive on the moon
- a lot of other details that we take for granted building things here on Earth
There is no direct evidence of enough water on the moon - there are hints that water MAY be there, but we don't know exactly where or how much. The spectrum of water in moonlight doesn't say how much there is, and we don't have direct physical evidence yet. What water we do believe is there could be just hoarfrost in the polar regions, that's not very convenient or very much.

As for manned missions to Mars, the technology is progressing but we aren't there yet. We have orbiters around Mars and 2 rovers on the surface, but those missions were expensive in time and money. And so far no physical evidence of water (just circumstantial evidence so far).
Almost half of the missions sent to Mars in the last decade have failed - we need to know why so we can eliminate the risk for humans. But NASA does have plans for a manned mission in the 2020's.

But the scientists at NASA are persistent.

Answer 2

Humans need more than just water. They need oxygen and food as well. It would be far too expensive to send all that stuff with a permanent or long term mission, as well would it be expensive to continually resupply them from Earth. We need to make sure we can create everything we need while we are there before we start sending people to live there.

Mars missions would be even more complicated. While it will likely be easier to create the necessities on the planet, it takes 7 to 9 months to get there so the craft would have to bring a lot of stuff with them to sustain the crew on the journey. Additionally, any mission to mars will have to stay for a good long time, as they cannot just turn around and go home whenever they want to. Going to Mars requires a launch window that comes about only every 2 years or so, which means the same applies for coming back. Men who go to mars will have to stay for at least a year or so before being able to return.

NASA has plans to do both of these things, but being able to do them successfully requires a lot of careful planning, copious amounts of research and experimentation, and lots of money, and all of these things take time.

Answer 3

NASA is planning to build a permanently manned base on the Moon. They see it as a next step to learning how to live off the Earth.

A trip to Mars would take at least three years. They will have to bring along all the oxygen, food, water, and fuel for the whole trip with them. That including also what it would take to get back home again. Anyway you look at it it would stretch the state of the art of space travel to a level that we are not yet ready to achieve. There's talk about using possible water for drinking and oxygen and the atmosphere of Mars to manufacture fuel but this technology is in it's infancy.

Answer 4

NASA would love to do all the, but congress will not give them the necessary money and will not allow then to redirect the money they have now to that purpose.

By the way, it is not 100% proved that there is water or even large amounts of hydrogen on the Moon. All they know for sure is that there is SOME hydrogen in a few permanently shadowed craters near the poles. It may or may not be in the form of water and it may or may not be in large enough quantities to mine effectively.

Answer 5

We are at the begining stages of developing space stations of the moon , mars and the often overlooked asteroids.

Whichever country exploits space resources first will stand to gain the kinds od advantages that European countries like England, France and Spain did during the 1500's.

The resource wealth alone of a single metallic asteroid will be worth more than the historic entire world output in mining!

With the development of smarter and better robotic and remote location control systems these areas will become more econmically viable.

High school freshman?

Go into engineering or robotics or nano tech and your future is assured.

Answer 6

NASA plans to construct moonbases by 2024 with an unspecified timeline after that for manned missions to explore Mars.

The European Space Agency plans a manned Mars mission around 2033.

Russia is considering a manned Mars expedition around 2016-2020.

Japan's program has been plagued by setbacks and a decision to launch a manned mission to Mars will not be announced before 2025.

China will not be prepared for a manned mission until 2040-2060.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

There's no oxygen or water on the Moon(Hidrogen isn't =Water).It will cost a lot of money to transport water and oxygen to the Moon.
Of course,we'll send a human mission to Mars IN THE FUTURE

Answer 9

Because there isn't any way to make money off of it.

We went to the moon for no reason other than to prove that we were better than the Russians.

Now that we have convinced ourselves that we are already better than everyone there is no actual reason to head to Mars.

Actually the president is pushing for it, but its likely politically motivated, he's trying to draw attention away from negative things, Thats fine with me though I'd like to see us get to Mars.


I think we should begin implementing a Marsian Terraformation project.

It would take hundreds of years to do, but its scientifically feasible to make the martian atmoshpere breathable.

Might make a nice permanent solution to alot of overpopulation and pollution problems that human beings are sure to face in the future.

Answer 10

hydrogen doesnt = water. there is no water on the moon, we know this. and we havent sent astronauts into the solar system because its extremely dangerous and expensive, we do not have the technology to do it.