Fabio Sau, UND says:

I count on all of you to provide me with your input and insight for my master thesis. Please, visit this quick online survey on the Political Feasibility of a Human Mission to Mars.

A survey of self-selected readers of pro-space websites? I sure hope this isn't going to be a master's thesis in the social sciences.

I sure hope this isn't going to be a master's thesis in the social sciences.

Isn't that how they're usually done in that discipline? Heck, it'll probably end up as a PhD thesis.

Sam probably got the same email that I did on this, but I didn't bother to post on it. Not to criticize Sam, but I've little interest in Mars, per se.

Regarding the scornful comments on the merit of a social-political science topic, such as the one of Political Feasibility of a Mars Mission, let me tell you that I fully acknowledge the inherent difficulties and challenges to give predictions or just some interpretation on the often unpredictable, polarized, and emotional political process.
This does not mean that my research effort is a worthless endeavor.
The nature of the study is merely exploratory. I am not testing any specific model in social or political theory. I am just searching for determining levels of influnce among differnet variables that are clearly involved in the politics of space. Ideally, in case of high response rate, I could even discover some correlations among these factors.
Mockery does not help in any case. Mars is definitely an option on the table for future human spaceflight. The technology is out there. What matters more is the willingness and determination to make a decision in that direction. How such a decision can be achieved and what are the ingredients for such a recipe: this is what the research effort is all about.