[Villages PL]

Two astronauts, one American and one Russian, will orbit the Earth for one year in the space station. That will be a record. The article I read a few days ago said they want to know more about the long term effects of weightlessness in preparation for longer space flights, like perhaps going to mars.

It's interesting that they say they need to know more, when they already know plenty about something that's detrimental to one's physical well being. Most muscle and bone loss can be regained by exercising, except bone loss in the hip. There's no reliable exercise for rebuilding one's hip bone. And, incidentally, when you rebuild bone through exercise, there's no way of knowing if it will have the same strength as before. There's a test for bone density but not for bone strength. Low bone density can be stronger than high bone density and visa versa.

I think more people should know about this so they will have a better appreciation of what these men are sacrificing. They are offering themselves as human guinea pigs for science, so there may eventually be a trip to mars. Is this a worthy goal, just to say that we did it?

[Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

...Is this a worthy goal, just to say that we did it?

IMHO, in the long run, there would be far greater benefits than "just to say we did it".

[Bavarian]

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

IMHO, in the long run, there would be far greater benefits than "just to say we did it".

Ditto. We must explore the Planets. I was disappointed that we did not build a base on the Moon instead of the ISS. Remember reading how easily it could be done, put a tent over a crater and mine foe materials to build permanent station.

We should have been on Moon in 1999, Went to Jupiter in 2001. Need to perfect the Warp Drive which NASA says now may be feasible.

Don't stagnate!

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

IMHO, in the long run, there would be far greater benefits than "just to say we did it".

Agree 100%. Think of the technology spin offs. The Apollo program resulted in numerous benefits and medical uses. I'd expect Orion to result in even more.