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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7766302" data-attributes="member: 177">Um, like you are supposed to do with a campaign, you *gasp* talk about it!You speak as if collaboration among spacefaring nations is somehow new.  We've been doing it for decades.Yes, it is.  However, the return on the investment is... *AN ENTIRE FRIGGIN' PLANET*.  Let us not pretend this investment wouldn't have a payoff.Overall, such a project will likely take centuries before someone could walk on the surface of Mars without protection.  But if you are thoughtful about it, there are milestones, points along the way - when you need to worry less about abrasive dust, when you have to worry less about explosive loss of pressure, when you can grow crops with less protection, and so on - where you get a return on your work.This is all why unplanned random action toward the end won't work.  Yes, this is all larger than anything humanity has tried before.  So has been each and every development in space... *ever*.  As if everything is All-Or-Nothing?Those modules join together, you know.   They share systems - power, air, environmental sensors, computers, and so forth.  There were only two ways to get them up there - in a Space SHuttle cargo bay, or on the top of a Russian rocket.  You couldn't have a nation build a module, just hope it fits in the Shuttle payload bay, and then figure out how to connect them together once it is up there!  Even if the nation has a significant amount of design freedom within a given module, you can bet your gold fillings that those designs were vetted by others to make entirely sure everything was up to snuff.Simply put - the ISS cost on the order of $150 billion to build.  And you think they didn't plan the frak out of each bit?  Really?  They just made it up as they went along, that's what you think?</blockquote>

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