This is going to be fun to watch...Sep 1, 2:28 AM (ET)By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA on Thursday gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets.
The nation's space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, it will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships
My love of manned space travel is well documented here at TRR but 7.5Billion? They can't be serious. Is that just for the space vehicles? A program to ultimately send humans to Mars in 20-30 years will cost 100 times that.
As much as I love this stuff I have to question the usefullness of it. If they say that Mars will be terraformed, strip-mined of all it's useful ore and minerals, and that many corporations will get filthy rich, then I'm on board. Otherwise what's the point?
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