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[Starver]

'Build that improved fence in select places' doesn't have the same ring to it, though.

BUILD SOME SHORT BITS OF 'WALL' THAT ARE TECHNICALLY FENCES, AND SOME SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE LOW LEVEL 'CRIME'  THAT ISN'T HOME-GROWN OR SHIPPED/FLOWN IN REGARDLESS WILL HAVE TO SNEAK BY OUR UNMANNED DEFENCES!

(Snappy, eh?)

[Bralbaard]

Holy geez he caved completely? Link to that one, please. I have friends to lightly tease.

He did, it seems.  And only one day after claiming in a tweet that WE WILL NOT CAVE!
We can all refer to him now as cave-man trump.

[Reelya]

Don't think you guys had this recent story yet:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/donald-trump-mars-nasa-funding-2020_us_5c48547be4b025aa26bea47c?ec_carp=3816990936517921370

an upcoming book by former White House communications official Cliff Sims says the president wanted the first manned spaceflight to the Red Planet done and dusted by the end of his first term in office ― 2020.

Sims details Trump’s fantastical attempt to bring the mission forward by more than a decade in Team Of Vipers, excerpts of which New York magazine published on Tuesday.

The author writes that Trump, before an April 2017 video call with U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, offered the space agency’s then-acting administrator Robert Lightfoot Jr. unlimited funds if NASA “focused entirely” on the mission to Mars “instead of whatever else you’re doing now.” Trump also promised to send NASA’s budget “through the roof.”

But the president was left “visibly disappointed,” Sims notes, when Lightfoot explained why it would not be possible.

[Hanslanda]

*cough* and republicans complain how liberals just want to throw money at problems

[Telgin]

I'll give him credit for wanting to spend money on something scientific for a change, although it was pretty blatantly for PR reasons.  It's also kind of funny for Trump to be told that unlimited money wouldn't obviate the need to perform research, construction and prep work.

[Madman198237]

Research, engineering and design, construction, prep, human-rating of rockets and flight vehicles capable of delivering humans to space without enough supplies to reach Mars, oh and the pesky necessity of waiting for the proper alignment of Mars and Earth AFTER all that other stuff is done.

So Trump doesn't understand physics, space, engineering, safety, or spaceflight. What else is new?

On the plus side, Elon Musk might make his deadline within acceptable space-program deadline overruns, at about 2022 IIRC the launch window correctly. Of course, this is Elon Musk we're talking about, so it's more likely that he'll launch a BFR-powered mission in like 2030 rather than when he wants to, but hey, close enough, right?

[nenjin]

The party of fiscal responsibility!

[JoshuaFH]

Research, engineering and design, construction, prep, human-rating of rockets and flight vehicles capable of delivering humans to space without enough supplies to reach Mars, oh and the pesky necessity of waiting for the proper alignment of Mars and Earth AFTER all that other stuff is done.

So Trump doesn't understand physics, space, engineering, safety, or spaceflight. What else is new?

But he's got that instinctive understanding of science he bragged about!

[Teneb]

I'll give him credit for wanting to spend money on something scientific for a change, although it was pretty blatantly for PR reasons.  It's also kind of funny for Trump to be told that unlimited money wouldn't obviate the need to perform research, construction and prep work.

He obviously wants a martian Trump Tower before he dies.

[Madman198237]

Personally I wouldn't have thought it a violation of fiscal responsibility to do that. It would've pushed industry and education back up to practically Apollo-era heights if not further, most likely.

Of course, he'd never have gotten that past the Senate for many, many reasons, but ah well. Would've been awesome to see NASA put on the "we're going to do [amazing thing] in [rather short deadline]" hats and try something again, unlikely though it may be.

[nenjin]

Telling anyone they have an unlimited budget to meet your own delusions of grandeur is fiscally irresponsible, whether we like NASA or not.

[Rolan7]

Yeah, it's kinda a shame. Particularly if it'd been a bit more realistic.

I'll give him credit for wanting to spend money on something scientific for a change, although it was pretty blatantly for PR reasons.  It's also kind of funny for Trump to be told that unlimited money wouldn't obviate the need to perform research, construction and prep work.

You don't need testing if you go the Contact route...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Build two many!

[Trekkin]

Personally I wouldn't have thought it a violation of fiscal responsibility to do that. It would've pushed industry and education back up to practically Apollo-era heights if not further, most likely.

Or back to the "shoot and hope" era, given the time constraints. But, hey, believe what you want.

[Madman198237]

You seem to be operating under the belief that NASA's [modern, especially] safety system actually cares whatsoever about somebody else's time constraints. Yeah they'll try and meet deadlines, but safety is always first and foremost there when dealing with manned flights (and usually when dealing with unmanned stuff as well), often to the frustration of government budgets and other peoples' timelines.

So yeah, there would be no "shoot and hope" whatever on a mission to Mars. There would, however, be a lot of planning, design, investment in relevant tech industries, and plenty of public interest about the whole thing.

[PTTG??]

Footprints and a flag on mars would be a grave disservice. There's noplace else in the solar system that's more appropriate to settling (don't give me crap about floating Venusian cities, let's try building one city floating on water before we try it over an ocean of vaporized acid).

But to do that, we need to do it smart. Start with with a new generation of NASA lifters. Move into asteroid mining and space industry. That's where the real money is. Land on Ryuguor something and make something like $30 billion dollars of profit. More money by far will be made in the industrial boom that infusion of metal and cash will have on the economy.

Then you can afford a serious investment in a Mars colony that will have the potential to be self-sufficient.