Andrew Sullivan appropriately titles his post Lost in Space as he discusses the "waste of money" that is GWB's space proposal. I for one, wholeheartedly disagree. Even talking it over with a few people at a Baptist Church no less, they felt much like myself "to infinity and beyond!" My biggest problem with GWB's space proposal is that it will take too darned long. Maybe Andrew had the good fortune to be alive the last time man stepped on the moon. I however, did not, and I would love to see man step on to Mars and soon, and maybe even further away in my lifetime. Personally, I'd love to see an initiative to terraform Venus. Can't be done they say, maybe not today, but if we work on it I could see it! Of course, it would involve global cooling, and we know how dangerous that is.
Posted by Joel at January 18, 2004 10:10 PM | TrackBackWho could have thought the consequences would come so quickly? Already NASA has announced that the Hubble telescope will no longer be maintained, cutting its useful life short by decades.
Posted by: Adam at January 19, 2004 08:53 AM (Permalink)I don't know, this kind of posturing by NASA reminds me of the old refrain we'd better raise taxes or no more firefighters, when instead they could do something to the wasteful programs the county (agency in NASA's case) spends money on.
Posted by: Joel B. at January 19, 2004 09:05 AM (Permalink)Joel--
That's it, of course. Knee-jerk bureaucratic response. The shuttle/space station folks control NASA and they HATE this proposal, since it sunsets all their programs. So they will do their level best to kill the initiative, without actually coming out against it.
Now, I do wish that Bush had left the Mars mission off the table for now -- a permanent moon colony (not "base") is a necessary requirement for ANY future step, as are permanent geosynch and L2/L3 outposts, and the means to get there routinely. As Heinlein pointed out, earth orbit is halfway to Pluto, energy-wise.
If the ISS had been a real space station, instead of Mir 1.5, it would have been worth supporting as a way-station. But as a goal in itself it was underwhelming, especially after it was scaled back for the 23rd time. As it is, refurbishing Mir would have been far cheaper, which is probably why NASA made sure Mir died.
Since you weren't around in 1969, I'll point out this: we all thought that we'd be on Mars by now, and that "2001" was a fair prediction. Imagine the disappointment of the Apollo generation.
Posted by: Kevin Murphy at January 19, 2004 11:10 AM (Permalink)Danger has robinsoned in the past, but that does not mean it will continue to do so.
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