We're going to Mars

[Woodruff]

What are the benefits of a flyby mission? Is there anything to be learned from one?

Absolutely. All the technology to do it has yet to be invented.

Of Mars? Are we talking about something else, because I'm getting a little confused by this.

But! we do have a firm grasp on how to do everything, we just need the capital to start. I mean-uh, if we could just get funding of a trillion dollars, we could terraform Mars in about 100 years. How cool would that be?
I know.... a trillion dollars sounds like a lot of money when everybody is poor and there's wars and stuff. But is it really a lot of money to buy a second Earth?

There is a type of mossy stuff, if I remember correctly, that scientists believe could thrive on Mars, actually ("thrive" relatively speaking, of course). It's output is high in oxygen, and it doesn't need a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide to get by. It could be an important part of the process.

[Woodruff]

What are the benefits of a flyby mission? Is there anything to be learned from one?

Of Mars? We were doing that in the 1960s.

We've got four rovers (two actually active) on Mars now, if I remember correctly.

Heck, we've got two probes who are well outside of our Solar System now and travelling at about a million miles per day. Pretty soon one of them will crash into an alien space probe and we'll need the Enterprise to get out there and save us.

I guess what I'm saying is will having two humans fly around the planet without landing give a better opportunity to learn than the rovers can offer?

Oh, I got you. I took "flyby" as meaning an unmanned probe. My bad. About the only thing a manned flyby mission might gain us would be perhaps a better understanding of "the journey itself". I don't think it would aid in any information as far as Mars itself is concerned.

I just don't see the point of sending humans if they aren't going to land and start the terraforming process

Terraforming isn't necessarily the first step, however. I do agree with you that there probably isn't too much of a point if we're not going to land and begin the colonization process.