crocnation..

Ok, anyone who knows me this is going to come as a complete surprise to every one.. I did the unthinkable...   I applied to.. AND WAS ACCEPTED... This just makes me well up when I think about it.. I'm one of the 100 finalists to go to MARS..  You heard that right..  I got the letter in the mail yesterday.. I "won".. I won  a chance to be one of the final four to go to mars.. So proud.. How was I selected?? Good question.. First off I sent  a letter to...

Imagine this being real.. I can't.. For one thing it is real but it seems more than a little far fetched because of the logistics involved with keeping however many people alive going all that way.. Had they made the moon the goal of this colony idea I would still be skeptical but at least it would be more like they are in our back yard.. We don't have the heavy lift vehicle yet.. We set a rocket up in December last year and the first to launch from American soil in four years (?)  and it was unmanned.. I remember when they were getting ready to test to shuttle, they were sure it might blow up on the pad or very shortly afterwards.. And this thing was manned, the very first test launch of a shuttle was manned, the very first launch of this new craft would be unmanned, and will be followed up quickly with another launch  a year later.. Wait, did they say it would be a year later before the next launch??  I think they said that.. The shuttle took a few months to turn around, this new "old school" pod will not be reusable.. That's a good idea i guess.. So we are going to go to mars by 2030 ish??  Really, at this rate if we get to mars before the people that were chosen to go on this odyssey children are old enough to retire I'll be stunned.. I'll be dead, and stunned.. But seriously, would you want to go to mars knowing that they are gonna put it as priority number one??  Get you there and return you... Oh yeah.. Not going to return you.. Hope cable tv evolves by then.. Imagine the trip there take 11 months give or take.. They have that long to ponder all the mistakes that NASA made, hoping that the low bidder packed the parachute well enough to survive the landing on the marsian surface which currently includes NO liquid water and only has what NASA says it has.. spare water, enough to water a tree for a week.. Unless you flush the toilet, then all bets are off..  But I say good luck to you, you will get a school named after you.. Maybe they will keep it on the new school they build to replace the one with your name on it.. Probably not though.. Who was he? He went to mars, died three months before the craft landed in the surface.. In, you mean on?  Oh it crash landed.. They are spread over a three mile area of the planet??  That sounds like fun.. Oh, that's why we won't ever try that again??  Hmm..   

They will train for ten years to be the first to go on this trip.. Good luck to the hundred "lucky" contestants.. Hope you know that ten years is a low number.. If you are 18, you will be in your late 30's before this thing goes anywhere.. There is no president urging to get to the moon by the end of this decade and return him home safely.. We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.. Well we don't do these things because they are hard.. Not anymore we don't.. Everyone loves to blame Obama for the shuttle being shut down.. It was Bush who set into motion the shuttle ending.. And logically it looked like the best idea when Obama came into office, but he could have chosen to keep it flying, but didn't. Why?  Because they were only supposed to fly a certain number of missions and they all were beyond their life terms.. They should have been retired before the new century started.. Why they took so long to start working on the next generation space craft is beyond me.. Red tape and egos and companies wanting to get in on the space rocket contract.. But we still have mishaps, rockets that blow up on the pad or during launch somewhere, all countries that launch rockets have all had issues.. I say when another rocket blows up during launch and kills people could be the reason Mars will never have human foot steps on it's surface.. I hope they can get there, but getting to the moon first.. Some smaller goal.. And it would be nice if there was a return voyage from Mars.. That is way in the future..  Go Buck Rogers GO.. 

Badge Henry