Mars to be Banned by Congress

Hey guys it seems that congress wants to ban human exploration on Mars. Why maybe there really is something there!

"Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban humans on Mars at NASA: "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." The bill is held up in Congress and the anti-Mars language may be taken out. But in case the Mars ban becomes law, the Space Review has a handy guide on how NASA can beat the ban and continue its research and development without breaking the law."

Here is the full link Slashdot Mars Ban

How can the government ban our exploration of the solar system, especially something that they do not own. Our rights are being taken over slowly day after day and something has to be done soon to stop them.

I think it's already banned.

reply to post by TheoOne
How ridiculous. Any explanation? Or are we to assume they're doing whats best for us?

I don't think they are banning humans on Mars. They are banning funding of it. And probably want to focus on more important issues.

But it still raises question.

Originally posted by rhombus24
How can the government ban our exploration of the solar system, especially something that they do not own. Our rights are being taken over slowly day after day and something has to be done soon to stop them.

Sheesh. Do you understand the concept of funding? The Congress was budgeting research as it has every right to do in our society. Given the current circumstances, they decided to not give funds to this particular area of research. I work in research and the budget pains are felt everywhere, not just in space program.

Nobody banned flights to Mars. You are more than welcome to use your own funds to built a spacecraft for that purpose.

Maybe they are just making sure monies are not spent on a project that is considered wasteful. Right now monies are tight at all levels of the government (except defense). Maybe until they come up with something that sounds fruitful, they are not willing to spend money where there are no expected returns.

Just a thought.

Maybe they are trying to protect something up there from prying eyes? for as long as they can at least, once they go back to the moon and get the base set up things will change,

They banned it cause Bin Laden is hiding out there.. They wanna be the 1st to strike..

Think about he isnt on earth.. so there is your reason...

(IN all do sense I do not believe anything i wrote above.)

just because the USA may ban NASA, mabey the ESA will still atempt to go there!

See this is why it's exceedingly important to actually READ the articles the OP posts!! This is a one year ban on using allocated NASA funding for any research that applies EXCLUSIVELLY to a manned mars mission. In other words it's a democratic congress sniping at a republican president who openly stated a long term legacy goal of getting the ball rolling during this term for manned mars and moon missions. This is the equivelant of native american tribal battles where no one was seriously injured as everyone was out to count COUP...

This whole issue is essentially a political girl fight where hair pulling and nasty names come into play to spite the other side. Not a coverup of whatever may or may not be on mars.

Further Exceedingly badly researched posts such as this do very much harm to the credibillity of all of us. Please spend 30 or 40 extra seconds scanning the article and maybe actually looking at one or two more for corroboration before you spout in the future.

reply to post by dgtempe


No, because aliens run the white house and they don't want humans to find out the truth!

Congress is like a BOX of choclates

I am not sure how people can consider this a conspiracy, yet will continue to complain about the National Budget (yet another conspiracy!).

There is a limited amount of money the government can spend, and they exceed it constantly. I don't see a problem with this restriction in place, as it is a temporary issue. Honestly, I would love to see a lot more money allocated to NASA, but considering the X-Prize embarressed them considerably, I think NASA needs to clean up shop before they can expect any serious budget allocations in the future.