November 2010

Take A One-Way Trip To Mars?

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MARS NEEDS PEOPLE.

"Mars Needs People," sound like a movie title, a B- move, grindhouse style. The net is buzzing since NASA let out the call that Mars needs volunteers for a one-way trip-- one way to save money -- and preferably, wealthy volunteers, with the cash to pay their own way, are wanted. Since the NASA call, some have joined in the game of suggesting whom to send to Mars, which wealthy dude or gal the planet earth can do without. The list is long. I won't linger on it. Sixty and fifty and seventy years old; eccentric billionaires, who is going to miss them?

Ok, Alright, Humanoid Robot In Space

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Tomorrow is scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon, with the launch of NASA's Discovery space shuttle, with a new kind of astronaut on board, a robonaut, on a journey into space with six human crewmates. In the future, it could well be six robonauts to one human crew member, or all robonaut crews.

Item from the Associated Press -- "Space is about to get its first humanoid from planet Earth. Robonaut 2 - affectionately known as R2 - is hitching a one-way ride to the International Space Station this week aboard the final flight of space shuttle Discovery."