Hi Billy,
On Apr 5, 2010, at 10:15 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> Is human space exploration worth it? If not, why are nations like China and
> India ramping up their programs? Clearly they know what America has known for
> years: The direct investment alone is worth the cost, and the indirect
> benefits lead to economic drivers and scientific discoveries that far exceed
> expectations.
>
I'm not sure I buy that argument anymore. Yes, we got some nice stuff from
space:
http://seds.org/archive/technology/spinoffs.shtml
But does that justify the cost? And compared to the 1950's (or even the
1980's), government R&D isn't nearly the innovation driver it used to be.
Right now, it costs NASA half-a-billion dollars for *each* Space Shuttle flight:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html#10
What if we had plowed that money into high-efficiency automobiles, or
environmentally-friendly coal mining?
Yes, at one level I grieve the loss of the manned space program. OTOH, ever
since the Challenger disaster I've mostly lost faith in NASA as a bastion of
innovation and cutting-edge research (my friends at JPL excepted :-). Maybe
instead of flogging the corpse of a once-great institution, we should find a
way turn those creative juices in a whole new direction.
Like say, the ocean:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5367/is_200410/ai_n21358468/
I agree the ocean isn't as sexy as space, especially post-Jacques-Costeua. But
maybe it could be. What was the name of that TV show -- basically an
underwater version of Star Trek?
-- Ernie P.
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