Dave Gary Wrote: We shouldn?t waste our resources on manned exploration. At least, not until we develop warp drive. Voyager is just now heading for the heliopause and it?s been traveling for decades. Our probes take years to reach the outer planets and the nice thing is that they don?t complain, they don?t ask for a pay raise, they don?t miss their families, they don?t fight over scarce resources, they don?t fight, they don?t have psychologic breakdowns and their missions are a lot cheaper. Do you, really, think that a manned mission to Saturn would get any better data than Cassini? I mean, after the crew fought over that last hot dog? Veggie bowl, in Patrick?s case. I agree Dave, that robotic probes are by far the least expensive and most efficient method of gathering scientific data. However, if humans want to survive long term, then we need to start developing ways to get to Mars and terraform it. Waiting for warp drive is obviously impractical, but perhaps refining ion propulsion may reduce the travel time to the red planet. It may take a couple of hundred years to get to Mars, establish a self sustaining base and terraformn the atmosphere. Although, I'm not sure what can be done to alleviate the radiation and cosmic rays, since Mars has no magnetic field. But we have to start somewhere. Hell... given the opportunity, humanity is always willing to trash another planet. Jon