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Space Travel

NASA's accomplishment with the most recent rover is significant, but if the U.S. wants to continue its space program without going broke, the agency needs to make a fundamental change ["Live from Mars," Aug. 20]. The most expensive part of space exploration is leaving Earth's atmosphere. Tremendous amounts of money are spent on rocket fuel alone just to thrust past gravity and get payloads into outer space. If more resources are invested in alternative methods like the space elevator, an idea taken seriously by many scientists, then the costs of outer-space travel could be drastically reduced.

Geoffrey Stines,...

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