Heh. I like Mary Roach and I’m glad Packing for Mars is the first book I read in 2011. Even if the space budget appears to have been cut so much that a lot of the programs she talks about have probably suffered an awful lot. I think we NEED to go to Mars. Seriously – and I’m not even a NASA/space program geek like TW is.
I think we NEED to go to Mars because it’s human nature to push the boundaries – to go where no people have gone before – to learn new things, think about things in different ways. Mars is a beautiful example of that kind of drive. Not to mention all of the amazing scientific discoveries made along the way that will improve our lives on earth.
Let’s go to Mars. Dammit.