So you want trillions of dollars of taxpayers' money to have your imagination captured? Isn't there a cheaper way? Like a good book perhaps? Is your brains power to imagine so insufficient that capturing your imagination requires an enormous government program?
I am sorry about being dismissive, but I wish people would be more contemplative before sending our government headlong into the next boondogle. This is important stuff. We are talking about a lot of money here. Democracy is a duty is as well as a right. There are a lot of government agencies that would like to "capture your imagination", i.e., get you to write them a blank check, but we have to be a little more discerning.
That would be a good argument against people that supported those wars, but I am not one of them. Furthermore, if NASA is serious about this, this may easily cost about as much as the Iraq/Afganistan wars.
Those costs are estimated at about 4 trillion. The apolo mission cost about 100 billion in today's dollars. A Mars mission will be much more difficult and building rockets has not gotten cheaper over these years. It might be more expensive, because quality engineers are much better paid now even after adjusting for inflation.
I would not be surprised if a manned mars mission costs a trillion or two.
I am sorry about being dismissive, but I wish people would be more contemplative before sending our government headlong into the next boondogle. This is important stuff. We are talking about a lot of money here. Democracy is a duty is as well as a right. There are a lot of government agencies that would like to "capture your imagination", i.e., get you to write them a blank check, but we have to be a little more discerning.