NASA’s Journey to Mars News Briefing

On Dec. 2, two days before the launch of the Orion spacecraft’s first flight test (Exploration Flight Test-1), NASA held a news briefing, with participants at Kennedy Space Center and NASA Headquarters in Washington, to discuss the agency’s Journey to Mars and the critical role Orion’s flight test plays in the endeavor.

[Augmuse]

Good first test flight and I hope I live long enough to see us walk on Mars! Way to go NASA from a fan since 1958. Good to see some of our best and brightest testing the boundaries.  Thank you to the whole NASA family!!!

[JeffZ]

hearing engineers speak about this is pure ecstasy! go NASA!

[jrbb]

This is AWESOME! I can't believe we are really attempting a manned space flight to MARS! I mean I get to see this in my lifetime. I bet a lot of you guys are thinking the same. 

[davisman]

Why do i have a feeling they r hiding something like is earth in danger or something?

[Augmuse]

In the 1970's we talked about being on Mars by now. I wish we had never left the moon. We could have had 40 years of science from the moon. Orion looks good and I hope it will be supported more broadly. 

[thefowlyetti]

Looking forward to the SLS rocket, might have to make a trip to see one of them fly.

[AaronHamm]

Bad answer to the last question imo; is current spending levels enough to put us down on Mars? Telling us to look at the budget and pick it apart to find out for ourselves kind of sucks.

[DisphockunGuy]

I would love to go for the sake of human exploration in the name of science to be the "first civilians" on the surface of the Red Planet

[refjdiv]

I think we should just do another moon mission. We could get high Def footage now and a smarter craft to get there. It would be a lot safer now.

[Geneborg]

this was not a conference about going to Mars, this was a conference on how one could casually go to Mars doing all the stuff we want to do anyways, but is NOT specifically needed to go there, but if you have it anyways you can buy it off the shelf.

i'm dissapointed. basically, Nasa is not going to Mars for another 50 years, if nothing gamechanging happens (looks at China, India)

[BlackEpyon]

Orion... like Apollo, but slightly larger, and sporting an on-board computer more powerful than a scientific calculator :O

[dutchboss]

i find what they are talking about alarming..  like kids playing with fire, putting people on mars for extended periods, asteroid redirects... we are not even living or mining the moon yet, why are we thinking so far away? we really dont know what we are doing...

[grandpa]

Dear, Nasa
Glad to hear of mars mission, its just whare I wont to go, so I officially volunteer ! I know I'll be too old, but I wont off this rock! If room's an issue you can freeze my head, and just take that, my body's shot anyway. If money's tight, I have a Coleman cooler I think I'll fit in. Thanks in advance, you've made me the happiest guy in the ward !

[Murasame]

Are you not allowed to advertise nasa or something? Why do things like this get so little views?

[thehenry]

A trip to Mars is till 20 years away, but we have to start somewhere, right? Hope the test flight is a success.

The discussion about the new rocket technology was informative, but I can't help thinking about the generation after that.  Thinking about speed and payload, what kind of rockets will we need to conduct manned missions to the outer planets such as Uranus and Neptune. Maybe fusion engines will be a reality by the end of this century?

[zuutlmna]

I'm more interested in the Sentinel Mission program... -Makes more sense.

[marcosaf]

Perhaps the most important question we could ask right now is; Can we live on Mars indefinitely?
I don't know about yours, but my answer is no. First of all, we need to understand that we are a small part of a huge environment called PLANET EARTH. We eat, we drink and we breathe living organisms and all sorts of "organic compounds". We can NOT function without them, period. We are highly complex living organisms on Earth and right now NASA has just harvested lettuce inside ISS. Take your own conclusions...

[borderworldxen]

Excuse me for asking, but why do we want human exploration? Everything a human can do, a probe can do the same if not better and cheaper.

[adamfederer]

Most importantly, making Hydrogen from the ice on mars to be able to blast off and return to Earth and have a power source other than solar will promote and advance Hydrogen technology. Hydrogen is a zero pollution, sustainable and renewable fuel that can be made from sea water and is the solution to many of the largest problems on Earth.

[MPYarnall]

If the Nixon administration didn't cancel Apollo, and then NASA focus on the Space Shuttle so much, then we would've been to Mars 20 years ago or more.