Mission to "Mars"

Google Tech Talk
April 5, 2010

ABSTRACT

Presented by David D. Levine.

In January 2010 I spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station, a simulated Mars base in the Utah desert. Although the Martian conditions were simulated, the science was real, as were the isolation, hostile environment, and problems faced by the six-person crew. Although my official title was Crew Journalist, I soon found myself repairing space suits, helping to keep the habitat running, and having interplanetary adventures I'd never before imagined. My talk on the experience is profusely illustrated with photographs and has gotten rave reviews. Please see http://bentopress.com/mars/ for more information.

My name is David D. Levine and I'm a science fiction writer. I've sold over 40 short stories to all the major markets, including Asimov's and Analog, and I've won a Hugo Award, been nominated for the Nebula, and won or been shortlisted for many other awards as well as appearing in numerous Year's Best anthologies. I retired in 2007 after a 25-year career as a technical writer, software engineer, and user interface designer for Tektronix, Intel, and McAfee and now spend my days writing, traveling, and getting into trouble. For more on me, see http://www.bentopress.com/sf/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• tech
• talks
• space
• exploration
• mars

[powerdbycomedy]

@mavayu niggerz?!

[Dudeness21]

were closer to men on mars than robot miners. mining is no good unless those robots can also build shuttles to send back the ore. A drill and a shovel means holes on mars nothing more. Alo theyre not more likely to die than not. AND theyre going for 6 months, not to gawk but to do the kind of geology that might SOMEDAY allow mining. Havent you heard of prospectors? lastly everyone in nasa realised 20 years ago that humans SEE things better than machines. Try to think before you speak.

[exenrontexas]

@WalterWalkie Well having cleared that up we can move on to something we could all be "proud" about in the thankful sense and that is to make this planet more resourceful, more responsible and perhaps more sustainable. We all know what the issues are such as energy self sufficiency, population stabilization to sustainable levels and other resource conservation. Do that FIRST before sending man into very expensive space travel and use unmanned space exploration to answer science questions.

[WalterWalkie]

@exenrontexas haha yes from your posting name I bet you know something about greed and pride .. what I would say is I wish I could be more proud to be a human being , I hope everyone keeps improving so we can look back and be proud of what we've done . planetary pride!

[exenrontexas]

@WalterWalkie Pride is one of those words that has various meanings. When I refer to pride I am speaking of hubris when a person, group or nation says "Look what I have done that makes me so great". I believe that most if not all beneficial success comes in part or totally with the help of God. So in another sense I am actually saying that I am thankful for God grace and help and power. Which are you refering to?

BTW: I have seen enormous destructive effects of greed especially with pride

[WalterWalkie]

@exenrontexas greed is also a sin but we all know greed is good, I think pride fits into the same category, i mean , i hope you're proud of the point you just made about pride and how it relates to human spacefilght

[WalterWalkie]

@HitfulVids It seems like you and I have a different idea of what a robotic mining mission would be. It could be much easier to do a simple sample return mission using robots but I was imagining a more robust program drilling many deep core samples over as wide an area as possible. You could possibly be right if our goal was to understand some very specific aspect of mars geology but I think since our overall goal must be to learn to work and live off planet we've got to go there and learn.

[HitfulVids]

@WalterWalkie The first robotic mining mission can be done sooner than the first manned mission. NASA already sends robots to do microscopy and spectroscopy on Mars. Adding a shovel and drill (1st gen. miner) can't be much harder. ;-) The research program would benefit the 99.9999% of us still stuck on Earth and literally pave the way for more practical manned missions in the future. It's more productive than sending a couple of humans to gawk and likely die.

[WalterWalkie]

@sparkloweb umm ok . wait a sec ... there are no robotic miners and construction workers right now . did you mean we should just wait until we have developed robots as capable as humans? why didn't you just wait to post your comment with the mind reading computer technology instead of wasting so much time and energy typing it now?

[ROCKNTV1]

u r a frekin balding idiot and i will waste no mor time here