Mars

Jon Tierney has another Op-Eds in the NYTimes today, following that of last Saturday's, about going to Mars. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/opinion/30tierney.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/opinion/02tierney.html And Tierney harps on a particular bugaboo of mine, the tendency for NASA to ignore alternatives to artificial gravity when they can instead spend money figuring out that zero gravity is bad:

For decades NASA's doctors have been trying to find some physical therapy to mitigate the effects of weightlessness, but astronauts can still barely walk after six months of it. Meanwhile, NASA has largely ignored an obvious alternative: redesign the spaceship instead of the human body. Artificial gravity could be created during the flight to Mars by twirling the ship.

Hopefully this will help build momentum for Mars missions.