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It wasn't well worded. His point is that a great argument can be made that we have had both the technological and financial capability to start sending humans to Mars on the regular since the 1980's. What we've lacked is only the political and social will to do so.

NASA often comes up with fantastic new excuses for this, some more valid than others. "We need to learn more about the long term physiological effects" is valid, but is mostly invalidated by the tremendous amount of research that has already been done. When do we have, "enough"?

Saying we need this hibernation technology to do it is a lot like saying we need a better propulsion system to do it. We don't. Would it be nice? Sure. Is it an excuse for not going? Hell no.

For a much more in-depth analysis of this, and for a look at what is in many opinions a vastly superior way to do approach this, check out that book.

Amazon link.

Edit: As an added note, Elon Musk has a similar outlook. The implementation he's seeking is significantly different, but it has the same attitude. But unlike Zubrin, Musk had the capital to say, "screw it, I'll do it myself".

I agree. A role model isn't an excuse. I have no role model. Usually, kids have famous people as role models. Oh! That's amazing for only 2.5 years old! A little telescope would be fun! I remember as a kid, I had this space game where you could go around to each planet and moon and build on it (kind of like monopoly). It got me to learn all the moons and really loved it! Also, those laser lights that display the galaxy or planets onto the ceiling are great, even as an adult!

Edit: This is the game!

Absolutely serious! I’ll reword it. I would love to meet an astronaut someday. I love everything space related. I did get the book, Spacecraft Earth by Dr. Henry Richter, PhD, PE (ret.).

Dr. Richter has a PhD in chemistry, physics, and electrical engineering. And was a former NASA/JPL scientist/manager during the space race, and oversaw the development of Explorer I, the first US satellite. Plus he was responsible for scientific instruments in the Ranger, Mariner, and Surveyor programs.

His other books:

• America’s Leap Into Space: My Time at JPL and the First Explorer Satellites
  
• The Universe-A Surprising Cosmological Accident
  
• Instruments and Spacecrafts

Mars is 37% of Earth's gravity according to wikipedia. It could be true that it may prove detrimental to those living on Mars long-term. I doubt it, but there's one good way to study those affects, and that's to go to Mars. A 3 year mission is unlikely to cause severe issues, especially if gravity is simulated en-route.

You can do that by spinning the craft, as you alluded to, but you can also do so by tethering the habitable portion to another object (such as the burnt out upper stage of the rocket that is sending you to Mars). In doing so you can decrease the size requirements of the habitable portion of the craft. This is discussed as part of Mars Direct. To be fair, this hasn't been tested (certainly not on a large scale - I think a small scale test is happening this year) but the principle is sound.

On that note, some sources on Mars Direct that I found very interesting and helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKQSijn9FBs

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456935955&sr=8-1&keywords=a+case+for+mars

I enjoyed the movie. While I would have preferred a more technical explanation of the work that was being done by the protagonists, I also understand the movie was written for the widest possible audience.

It did a good job of immersing me in the world of the early Mercury program from a perspective I hadn't seen before. I'll take that whenever I can get it!

Other dramatizations that cover this period from other perspectives are:

• The Right Stuff - From the early Astronauts point of view. You can likely get this on DVD from you local library
  
• From the Earth to the Moon- Episode 1 covers part of the Mercury and Gemini programs and shows the politics and engineering challenges. This is another one you can get from the public library on DVD.
  
• Astronaut Wives Club - The first 4 episodes or so follows the Mercury program from the point-of-view of the wives of the Astronauts. This TV series aired some time ago, but the only place I can find it now is on Amazon download.
  
  I'm very glad to have Hidden Figures added to this list. If there are other movies or TV shows you're aware of that add another perspective, please post those names.
  
  

"This New Ocean" is an excellent, highly readable overview of all spaceflight, including the Apollo Program. It won a Pulitzer Prize, too.

https://www.amazon.com/This-New-Ocean-Library-Paperbacks/dp/0375754857

Amazon.com Review

More comprehensive than The Right Stuff, more critical than Apollo 13, This New Ocean is a near-perfect history of the men (and occasional women) who have "slipped the surly bonds of Earth." Eminent science journalist and space expert William E. Burrows covers just about everyone in history--from Daedalus to John Glenn--who ever designed or flew a rocket, trying to "ride the arrow" to the moon and beyond. It's a trail of testosterone from start to finish, but it makes for an engrossing read. One of Burrows's most interesting points is that without the cold war we never would have made it into space. He writes, "...the rocket would forever serve two masters at the same time, or rather a single master with two dispositions: one for war and one for peace." Werner von Braun, Robert Goddard, and other rocketry pioneers may indeed have wanted to explore space, but they knew the only way to get there was on the military's back.

Burrows extensively researched his subject, and he seems to want to include a little bit of everything; too much detail bogs down the narrative in places. Then again, he is no apologist for the space programs of the United States and the former U.S.S.R., and to tell their complete stories requires laying a great deal of political and scientific groundwork. When it comes to the great, memorable moments in space history, Burrows really shines. In telling the stories of Sputnik's first orbit, Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, Challenger's fiery death, and Sojourner's Martian road trip, he captures both the gee-whiz technological accomplishment and the very human emotions of the men and women involved.

--Therese Littleton

The deeper problem is a misalignment of culture and incentives.

NASA took an ton of heat around Challenger, because it was clear that they had serious cultural problems. And then when it happened again with Columbia, they became hyper-conservative when it comes to safety. The last Hubble servicing mission was cancelled because it was going to be too risky, but it was later reinstated partly because of the advocacy of the astronauts.

I highly recommend Simberg's "Safe is not an option" ebook on this topic; it very clearly outlines what the problem is.

Programs in NASA don't have incentives to do things fast or lean; if anything the incentives run the other way; when a program is done you have to find a new one and managers typically want bigger projects, not smaller ones. One of the sure career-limiting moves is to sign off on something that turns out to be a safety issue down the road, so test, document, and more test is their culture.

Boeing understands this - it's how SLS is run - and they are fine having their CC project take a lot of extra time; they will just allocate fewer resources to it and they deliberately bid a lot of profit into it.

It's driving Musk and the rest of SpaceX crazy. They bid based on how the CRS process had operated and while they expected more process for crew-rating and therefore more effort, they didn't fully comprehend where NASA was going to end up process-wise. SpaceX culture is deliberately built to be allergic to unnecessary process and overdocumentation but they are stuck with it in CC, and there's no way they can make a broken process better as they don't own it.

This is why they are keeping NASA as far away from Starship as possible, with the exception of some collaboration with technical experts. Starship is going to be crew rated based on the FAA requirements and what SpaceX thinks is the right way to do it.

Okay, for sci-fi, you have to get The Culture series in. Put Player of Games face out.

I don't read a lot of space books, but Asteroid Hunter by Carrie Nugent is awesome. I mostly have recommendations for spaceflight and spaceflight history, and a lot of these come from listeners to my podcast, so all credit to them.

• Corona, America's first Satellite Program Amazon
  
• Digital Apollo MIT Books
  
• An Astronaut's Guide to Earth by Chris Hadfield (Amazon)
  
• Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to the Construction of Low Energy Transfers by Edward Belbruno (Amazon)
  
• Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin (Amazon)
  
• Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Part 1 on Amazon)
  
• Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael Neufeld (Amazon)
  
• Space Shuttle by Dennis R Jenkins (Amazon)
  
• The History Of Manned Space Flight by David Baker (Amazon)
  
• Saturn by Lawrie and Godwin (Amazon)
  
• Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell (Amazon)
  
• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz (Amazon)
  
• Space by James A Michener (Amazon)
  
• Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes (Amazon)
  
• Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography by Arthur C Clark (Amazon)
  
• Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate and White (Amazon)
  
• Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein (Amazon)

Here's a good place to start online.
https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/stsref-toc.html

Here's a documentary NASA made toward the end of the program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaG0xDdP8g

Here are a couple of books that might help as well.
https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Space-Shuttle-Manual-Construction/dp/1844258661/

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Shuttle-Operators-Manual-Revised/dp/0345341813/

In support to our Opportunity and its service, I ordered this (check the link), can't wait to make my fellows cry like myself.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NV9YHTX?_encoding=UTF8&customId=B075384WHP&fbclid=IwAR14gvzAbaJN4W4xhrybhxT9u4d4yLsO9UBVkVNcOf1CVPDuwmBJor6S4OA&th=1