Mars Test Flight - 14.45 take off

Scrubbed ....tomorrow perhaps.

I thought mars was in Slough, you can go there anytime.

It'll be a good shot from America. Just look at the Moon shots. The first couple of them missed, but they got their rockets back...and the Moon's a lot bigger than Slough! Although it IS further, I suppose. 

Not with a rocket.  ^^^^^^^

naydam, it's a very tenuous connection, apparently Ronnie (the rocket)O Sullivan paid a visit to the Mars factory some years ago. some promo I think?

Russia are trying to get to mars too, I ask, is it really worth it, don't want to p on anyone's parade but is there an actual point in a human being on mars other than an egotistical thing to say you got there first, it's like the moon, nobody has been back since, and for good reason, there was no point going in the first place, there are many many people in america (richest country on earth) who are destitute and living off of food tokens, government should spend people's money on people's lives not on fantasies

More reasons :

To give our kids new Hope, careers and Dreams -- beyond merely surviving in a world of growing terrorism, more “police state” responses, with increasing resource and energy scarcity ultimately leading to endless global wars



To finally shift Mankind’s perspectives from “us against them,” to “we’re all one human Family,” with a resultant dramatic lessening of Conflict -- by finding actual evidence of extraterrestrial life to compare ourselves against … be it “merely” microbes, or even something more …



By finally opening up unlimited solar system resources -- be it exotic fuels, new planetary minerals or endless solar energy – dramatically alter the “have not” competition between the First and Third Worlds here on Earth … the ultimate source of increasing global terrorism



By setting sufficiently high goals – permanent human occupation of the Moon, then on to Mars – maintain the leadership role of the United States, by revolutionizing our current lagging technological and economic infrastructure … similar to Project Apollo jump-starting a sleepy 1950’s America into the 21st Century



By greatly accelerating these radical technologies -- from “black” energy systems and propulsion to autonomous robotics, from desktop “super computers” to their ultra-broad band communications (essential to conducting “routine operations” on the Moon and Beyond) – dramatically accelerate overall national and global productivity, with startling increases in GNP and GWP



By federally subsidizing the creation of a whole new generation of consumer industries -- through pioneering a literal “Second age of Space” -- dramatically increase the historical “return on investment” from past NASA spending … from 23 to one to more than 100-to-one; thus, for every billion dollars invested in this New Space Program, over a hundred billion will return to the national and world economy



By creating a global generation of “rich” humans, without adverse environmental consequences, peacefully reduce the growing pressures of global population – as historical data from the United States and Europe overwhelmingly has demonstrated that increasing personal wealth is the best “voluntary birth control”



By finally providing accessible new sources of raw materials and energy “off planet,” processed in lunar and orbital industrial facilities, naturally reverse over a century of planetary degradation and pollution … including global warming



By accelerating fundamental solar system exploration with human beings, return equally fundamental, radical scientific information – ranging from comparative planetary data which will assist preservation of the Earth’s environment through new space installations, to answers to the origin of the human race itself



By physically exploring our own solar system from a position of unimagined wealth and capability, someday answer the most haunting question of them all: are we the only intelligent species ever to have lived under this Sun … or, did someone come Before?

None of that stuff comes from NASA. NASA does not have funding for a manned mission to Mars at present.

The Mars One project is a privately funded one-way mission which looks awfully like a disaster waiting to happen.

Splash-down expected near 16:30.

^ Train spotter ?

Personally, I think that just about the biggest leap forward in Man's history came with the realisation that boiling water created immense power.

...Steam Train....I was thinking....oc.